Mobile Suit Gundam: The White Base Rebellion
by Berzerkerprime
Summary: UC 0080. To prevent the destruction of Side Six, the crew of White Base must come together once more and take arms against their own side. Can Bright Noah stop the militaristic plot of Joint Chief General McAllis? Or is Side Six doomed? *COMPLETE!*
1. Prologue: The Long and Short of It All

Mobile Suit Gundam: The White Base Rebellion__

_Authors Notes_

**Age Calculations**

These calculations are based off of information obtained at www.gundamproject.com . 

There is a line in the first episode of Gundam that happens in a conversation between Bright and Amuro's father, Tem Rey. This places Bright at age 19 and as having been in uniform for six months. Since the One Year War started right there in January of 0079, and the attack on White Base at Side Seven has been placed in September, we can place Bright as having joined Federal Forces in March, probably just after Zeon's first Drop Operation.   
I've placed the birth date of Bright's father at 0037, which would have made him 23 when Bright was born, about two years after construction on Side Three is begun. I figured that would be a good age at which to have kids. No other reason. By this point about 40% of Earth's population have migrated to the colonies. By the time Bright is born, there are only about 2 billion people living on Earth itself, with about 9 billion in the colonies.   
Let's face it, folks, Bright's a member of the elite.   
From the age of Bright's son, Hathaway, in Zeta Gundam, which is seven, and from the UC year that Zeta Gundam takes place in, 0087, we can tell that Hathaway was born in UC 0080. This to me seems strange, since by the end of the One Year War in 0079, it was obvious (at least to me) that Mirai wasn't ready to pursue relationships with anyone after her breakup with Cameron and the death of Sleggar, unless of course certain things happened aboard White Base that we just don't talk about (wink wink, nudge nudge).   
Now, since we all know that Bright is WAY too straight-laced, uptight, and just generally British to do something like that, I've chosen to ignore this in favor of something slightly more reasonable. So, yes, I'm doing something that's oh-so-painfully radical and saying Bright and Mirai get married in 0081. Oh, the Humanity! Feel the sarcasm here…   
Bright's sister, Clarisse, is three years younger than him. She was born in 0063 and in the context of this fanfic is 17 years old, while Bright is now 20, it being June of 0080 and all. If anyone knows an exact birth date for Bright (i.e., month, day), I would be most appreciative. 

**Character Considerations**

The name of Bright's former academy roommate, Jean Carnot, is pronounced "Jhaan Karno." It's French, people, not a mix-up of the whole Jean/Gene thing. As a little bit of background on Carnot, during the war he was a fighter pilot who ended up piloting a GM once they were mass produced.   
Now we move on to Bright and the rest of the Noah family. It always struck me as interesting that Bright seemed to be so violently against the stereotype of the "Elite of Earth." He obviously didn't think of himself as a member of any kind of privileged family. From the animosity of many colonists against the "Elite," we can guess that a great many families that remained on Earth paid their way into doing so through underhanded dealings. But, with 11 million Human beings now living in the Earth sphere, there is one thing that needs to be considered, no matter what; food, how are all those people going to be fed? It is in the best interests of the Federation to keep as many well-established farms running as long as possible. Since Bright himself rather looks down on families who pay their way into staying on Earth, we can infer that his family never did. I'm not suggesting that anyone who managed to stay on Earth without having to pay to do so would be a farmer, there are other situations. However, most of those just wouldn't fit the character (it's a farmer versus peasant thought process thing). While many people have this vision of the straight-laced, hierarchy-bound type being stereotypically British, this really isn't the case. It's a farmer thing, not a British thing. So, that's my take on it. Like it or hate it, deal with it. 

Now. Since the grit and nit-pick is over with, go thee and read fic! And remember that fanfic authors LOVE feedback! 

^_^ 

Berz.   



	2. Chapter One: Bright's Decision to Act

Mobile Suit Gundam: The White Base Rebellion   
by Berzerker_prime 

Chapter one: Bright's Decision to Act!

June 6th UC 0080,   
England 

Home. He was finally home.   
Bright Noah stared out over the vast expanse of green that covered the hillside. He couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. The sun was high in the sky, obscured only by the giant, puffy, white clouds that drifted slowly by. The air was clear and carried the scent of the tall grass that swayed in the gentle, passing breezes.   
Seized by a sudden urge to feel the wind, Bright undid the clasp on the collar of his uniform jacket and slid out of it. He dropped it in a pile on top of his duffle on the ground. Taking a bit of a running start, Bright dropped into a somersault and flopped onto his back, arms spread wide and chest heaving with laughter.   
After a moment, he calmed somewhat and simply laid there, staring up at the sky he had played under as a child. He stretched his hands upward into the air, covering a large cloud with his palms. 

_ "Papa, your hands are really big!"_   
_ Daniel Noah paused in the middle of his stretch and looked over at his son._   
_ "That's a strange comment, Bright," he said, "what makes you say that?"_   
_ The seven year old held his own hand up into the air next to his father's. The tiny hand was so completely overshadowed as to seem a hopeless cause._   
_ "My hand's little," said young Bright, "you can hold a lot of stuff in yours. I wish mine were bigger."_   
_ Daniel slowly lowered his hand and rested it on his stomach. "Bright," he said at length, "sometimes it's better not to hold so much at once. Don't be in such a hurry to have to hold everything in your hands, okay?"_   
_ "Yessir," Bright responded, not entirely sure what his father meant._

Bright's hand was still covering that cloud several minutes later. Laying in the shadow of the cloud, he let the old memories of the place come to mind unbidden.   
The sun chose that moment to come out from behind the cloud. Bright would have been blinded but for the shadow cast by his hand.   
"I get it," he mumbled to himself, "I get it now, father."   
"There's a sight I never could have expected."   
Bright jumped at the sudden interruption. He sat up and turned around to find the voice that had broken the silence that had previously only been broken by the wind.   
Standing there, her brown hair ruffled by the wind and a suitcase in hand, was someone Bright had come to find he missed since the destruction of White Base.   
"Mirai," he exclaimed, getting to his feet, "what on Earth are you doing here... on Earth, that is." Was his face actually feeling warm? Was such a thing descent of him? Proper? Possible, even?   
"I heard you finally got some leave," Mirai responded, "and a visit to Earth suddenly looked quite inviting."   
The two of them stared at each other across the expanse of grass for several moments, a cloud passing in front of the sun again and casting a new shadow over the scene.   
"Should I not have come?" Mirai asked, finally.   
"No!" Bright answered quickly. "Uh, no, no, it's... it's great to see you again."   
Mirai, for her part was equally flummoxed by her presence in England. She couldn't quite tell what she was doing there. She only knew that it was somehow important for her to be there, then.   
"When did you get here?" Bright asked.   
"My shuttle got in from Side Six about an hour ago," she responded.   
"I just got here myself," stated Bright, trying to make some small talk.   
Mirai held up Bright's uniform jacket. "I can see that," she said jovially, "I don't think I've ever seen you out of uniform before."   
"What about-"   
"That doesn't count, you were ill."   
Bright laughed a bit, picking up his duffle, taking his jacket from Mirai, and slinging both over his shoulder. "Well, I wasn't wearing the thing, was I?"   
"No, but you were still playing the up tight CO."   
"I was not."   
"Yes you were, you kept calling the Bridge."   
They wandered off in the direction of a small farmhouse placed serenely and stately at the very top of the hill, still joking and generally carrying on in a care-free manner. The sun peeked out from behind the cloud again as they left. 

There was another place, high above those same clouds, miles away in a spinning metal cylinder floating at one of the geo-stationary Lagrange points. Laying in the similarly serene grass of Side Six, Amuro Ray stared up at the opposite side of the colony's cylinder. He had returned there to see what could be done about his father only to find him missing once again. Given the aging man's lack of faculties, Amuro feared the worst.   
In the meantime, Amuro was trying to decide just where he belonged. Certainly, he could go back to Earth, live with his mother. But somehow he sensed that something between them had changed. So for now, while he made up his mind, space, with its lack of a proper sky and its fragile, contained existence, was his place.   
Suddenly, Amuro was the landing pad for a rickety construct of sticks and paper that looked as though it had maybe, one day far in the past, been meant as a kite. He sat up with the thing in hand and looked around, confused.   
"Now you've done it, Kikka," the unmistakable voice of the child Kats came to Amuro's ears.   
"But it wasn't my fault," the younger Kikka shot back, "the string broke." Lets was nearby, pondering what he should do about the ensuing argument.   
Amuro pushed himself out of the grass and stood up. He wandered over to the three kids, kite-like thing in hand. He adjusted the two sticks a bit, then held it up for the children. "I think it'll fly better if you have the two sticks more like this," he explained, handing it back to Kats.   
"All right!" Kats responded, happily, retying the string to it.   
Lets gave a small jump for joy. "Thanks, Amuro!" he practically shouted.   
"Amuro!" a new voice drifted across the field, just barely reaching his ears.   
Hayato Kobayashi came jogging over the expanse of grass, waving an arm above his head urgently. Amuro left the children to their own devices and wandered in Hayato's direction. The shorter man still managed to cover the lion's share of the distance. They met in the middle and Hayato stopped to catch his breath.   
"Hey, Hayato, what brings you out here?" Amuro asked.   
"Kai's here," Hayato responded between breaths, "he says he's got some news and from the sound of it, I don't think it's good."   
"Did he say what about?"   
"No, he said he'd rather only go through it once," Hayato shrugged, giving a wry smile, "you know him, the less work, the better. He's with Frau Beau right now."   
Amuro nodded and he and Hayato took off back the direction the smaller man had come, back toward the neighborhoods of Side Six. 

The farmhouse of the Noah family was situated stately at the top of a shallowly rolling hillside. A white, two storied, little charmer of a house dotted in places with blue painted gingerbread in a vaguely Victorian style, it was surrounded on all sides by three or four oak and hickory trees. Hanging from one of them in the front yard was a small swing which Mirai plopped down upon after depositing her bag on the ground near by.   
"I'm starting to see what so many people see in living on Earth," she said, swinging back and forth a few times, "this place is beautiful, Bright."   
"I like to think so," Bright responded, flashing a smile at her.   
They both heard the front door of the farmhouse open and turned to it. Standing in the doorway was a brown-haired but graying lady of fourty five years or so. She was a rather unimposing figure, hair tied back into a conservative pony tail which was draped over her left shoulder. She wore an elbow-length shirt of loose fitting green material and skirt of some sort of blue, soft denim. Over the skirt was a white apron of half its length tied at her waist. Standing there, she seemed startled to have heard voices in the front yard, but her shock turned into joy upon seeing who was standing on her property.   
"Bright?" she breathed, taking an uncertain step forward.   
Bright straitened out a wrinkle in his shirt and stood up as straight as he could, trying to look both the grown up and gentleman at once. "Hello, mother," he said.   
She stood there for a moment, as if trying to clear an apparition from her sight, as if she didn't believe what she was seeing was true. And then, she was down the stairs in a moment, covering the distance practically in the blink of an eye. Bright dropped his duffle on the ground as she threw her arms around him and he returned the gesture.   
"Oh Bright," she exclaimed, "my boy is finally home." Finally she caught sight of Mirai over Bright's shoulder. "Oh, and who's this?"   
Mirai, who had been keeping a respectful distance, finally approached and took a respectful bow. "I'm Mirai Yashima, ma'am. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Noah."   
"Mirai and I served together aboard White Base," Bright explained.   
"Please, call me Gwynneth. White Base? You were aboard White Base? But, I heard that a bunch of mere cadets had had to take over the ship following the loss of almost the entire crew and… Bright?"   
He had looked away from her, gazing off into the horizon, a flood of memories washing over his features in an instant. With the touch that only a mother could have, she brought his gaze back to her and looked into his eyes.   
"Bright… you've changed… grown up so much… I…"   
Mirai broke in when Gwynneth trailed off. "He took command when no one else could," she stated, "you should be proud of your son, ma'am. We all are, that's for certain."   
Bright's mother put both her hands on his shoulders and replaced her unerring mask of happiness. "Well, what on Earth are we doing standing around out here as though we're at a funeral? Come inside, both of you, and I'll fix something to eat." She wandered over to Mirai and clasped her hand. "Miss Mirai, it's a pleasure to meet someone who served with my son. I hope you'll be our guest for a few days."   
"I wouldn't want to impose," Mirai responded, "I'd planned on staying at the hotel in the town a few miles away."   
"Nonsense," said Gwynneth, taking Mirai's suitcase, "you're welcome to stay with us, we have plenty of room." She led the way into the house and Mirai and Bright hung back for a moment.   
"You look a little unnerved, Mirai, are you all right?" Bright asked.   
Mirai twiddled her index fingers. "Are you sure this is okay? My staying here?"   
Bright shrugged, picking up his duffle. "Mother's made up her mind. Trust me, it's a done deal."   
"That's not exactly the part I was talking about."   
"Mirai, I've said it before. I'll always be here waiting for you."   
Smiling fondly, she nodded. "I don't think I ever thanked you for that," she said as they both went into the farmhouse. Bright closed the door behind them and deposited his duffle and uniform jacket on the floor of the foyer. The interior of the house looked as old as the outside in construction, but appeared quite modern in décor save for a few rather old looking heirlooms dotting shelves and floor space here and there. From the end of the foyer hallway, the smells of some sort of baking bread drifted in the air, a vague smell of cinnamon accompanying it.   
Bright and Mirai wandered into the kitchen following their noses. Gwynneth was just closing the oven door when they entered. Two perfect loaves of bread were steaming on the stovetop, exuding their fragrance into the room.   
"Clarisse's bread," Gwynneth explained, "she set it in the oven before running into town on some errands. It's almost as though you followed your nose home."   
"Is that her cinnamon raisin, there?" Bright asked as he and Mirai plopped down in a pair of chairs at the table and Gwynneth handed each a glass of orange juice.   
"It certainly smells good," commented Mirai, "who's Clarisse?"   
"My younger sister," said Bright.   
"You never mentioned you had a sister."   
"Guess it never came up."   
The front door opened and closed out in the front part of the house.   
"I'm home, momma!" called a girl's voice at the top of her lungs.   
"Hello, Clarisse," Gwynneth called back, "come back to the kitchen. There's someone here you'll want to say 'hi' to."   
"Good, more people to celebrate," Clarisse said as she came into the kitchen, "the paperwork on A-20 finally came through and…"   
Clarisse was maybe a head shorter than Bright and definitely at least two years younger. Her hair was short, a well kept mop of dark brown curls which ended at the back of her neck. She was wearing an ensemble of blue leggings and a purple turtleneck, covered by a short sleeved jacket of green and a bright yellow scarf tied at her throat. She stopped short upon entering the kitchen, her eyes falling on the two seated at the table. Bright gave a sheepish grin and waved.   
"Big brother!" Clarisse shrieked, launching herself into a hug so intense that it sent Bright reeling backward, chair and all. "I knew it!" she continued babbling as Bright rubbed his now aching back. "I just knew you'd be coming back any day!"   
"Hi, Clarisse," Bright wheezed.   
"Wha-?"   
"I can't breathe."   
Clarisse blinked, then looked about as if having just noticed for the first time that she and Bright had tumbled to the floor in a heap. "Oh," she said, climbing to her feet. She grabbed on to Bright's hand and pulled him up and he once again righted the chair. She gave him a bit of a punch on the shoulder. "Ha! I've owed you that for a year and a half."   
Bright's eyebrow twitched. "So… that's how it is, huh? C'mere, you!" In the blink of an eye, Bright had Clarisse in a headlock and was giving her a noggie. "Teach you, short stuff!"   
"Let go, you fuzzy-headed bugger!"   
"Bright! Clarisse!" Gwynneth snapped. "Not in the kitchen, you know better!"   
"Yes'm," the siblings responded in unison, halting their antics.   
All this left Mirai giggling uncontrollably at her place at the table. "This is too much!" she exclaimed between laughs. "No one is going to believe Bright Noah acts just like a typical older brother. I can't believe he's almost acting like a kid." She was overtaken by another giggling fit and couldn't say any more.   
Clarisse elbowed Bright. "Home from the war with a girlfriend, even. You have been busy."   
Bright felt his face grow hot and he looked away, indignantly. "It's not… I mean… I know how it looks… but… you're reading too much into it."   
"Oh look, he's blushing," Clarisse oh so helpfully pointed out. 

"I don't get it," Hayato stated, flopping back into the cushions of the overstuffed couch. "What's the big deal, Kai? They're just mining Neotitanium."   
Kai, clad in blue jeans and his trademark purple running jacket, held up a piece of paper with a number of statistics on it. "It's not just that they're mining it," he said to all assembled in Frau Beau's apartment, "it's how much. Before the war, the amount was much lower, almost a quarter. When the war started, the Federation upped it in order to mass produce their GM and Ball mobile suits. Now that the war is over, the numbers haven't gone back down at all."   
"Well that doesn't mean anything," Amuro stated, reasonably, "with all the colonies that were damaged or destroyed, they'd need Neotitanium to rebuild."   
"Yeah," Frau Beau agreed, "we need the colonies so that the Earth doesn't become overpopulated."   
"I figured that was the case, too," explained Kai, "but I checked on all that ore to see where it's going. It's not going to the colonies, it's still going where it was during the war."   
"Mobile suit construction," Hayato mused.   
"Exactly," said Kai.   
"I guess I can see what's got you worried," said Amuro, "but just that doesn't mean that anything fishy's going on. I doubt you'd have come all the way over here if that was all there was."   
Kai leaned out of his chair, elbows resting on his knees. "Call it a gut thing," he said, "I called Sayla down on Earth and gave her all the info I've got. She's checking on a few things. There's something going on and I intend to find out what it is." 

That Kai… that… _Kai_!!!   
Sayla could have throttled him. She had the distinct feeling he somehow knew she would run into the Federation military in all this. But did he check this thing out himself? No-o-ho! _He_ was up in the _colonies_ and couldn't _make_ it!   
This is what was running through Sayla's mind as she frantically packed her things into her suitcase on the bed in her hotel in San Francisco.   
After tracking some leads she got off the information Kai had given her, Sayla had come up with nothing more that a word, "abraxis," and a web address for a parent company of the mining operation on Luna II. So, half an hour ago, she had sat down in her hotel room with her laptop and called up the address. When the page loaded, it asked her for a password. She had input "abraxis" and suddenly she found herself at some sort of military database. Dotted throughout the database were plans to send Neotitanium to various manufacturers. She went through the system, saving what she could for future reference, until finally it asked her for a password again. She input the same word and was led to still another document.   
This particular plan was detailed, but it wasn't the detail that sent Sayla into a panic. It was the fact that it was a plan to attack, invade, and occupy Side Six.   
Her laptop alerted her to a tracking program and she broke the connections immediately and started packing to high-tail it. This was something serious and she had to tell someone, anyone, who could stop it. But who could she trust?   
Marker. He was nearby in LA. It was a start. And maybe he could help her make sense of the attack plans.   
Not bothering to check out, Sayla loaded her things into the rental car she had for her visit. Hearing a few distant sirens echoing through the night air, she climbed into the car, pulled out of the parking lot, and headed to the freeway. 

Mirai awoke to the smells of baking breakfast and the clinking of dishes. The Sun was pouring into the west facing window of the Noah farmhouse guestroom, warming the room to a pleasant, drowsy temperature. For a moment, she forgot where she was, but once her mind was in full wakefulness, she settled back into the soft pillow and enjoyed not having to be awake.   
She pondered this place that she had come to on a whim. After spending so much time in space, aboard the nearly perfectly balanced environment of the colonies, this place seemed old, untamed, and completely and utterly wild to her. But of course, she knew that wasn't true at all. The Noahs had been farming the land for generations, all the way back a few generations into the pre-Universal Century calendar. If anything, this land was practically terra-formed into what they needed in a farm.   
Bright. Now, there was definitely something different about him here than there had been aboard White Base. Sure, he had had to do the balancing act of a commanding officer thrust into extraordinary circumstances at far too young an age, but Mirai had never associated him with a walking contradiction before. The war against the Duchy of Zeon had given him the life experiences of someone twice his age and he acted accordingly. And yet, now it was as if he had never grown up. Obviously, she was happy to see him finally taking some time to relax, but…   
What was it that drew her there, anyway? What was she doing on Earth? Was it simply to see Bright act his age for once?   
No, that wasn't it. And yet… it was.   
No, no, it was connected to that in some way she couldn't figure out, yet. Somehow, she felt as though she had to be there in order to help him. Just like on White Base. She was there to see both the kid in Bright and the commander/soldier once again.   
Something was going to happen. Something…   
Here? In this peaceful little place? No, her mind must have been playing tricks on her, she decided. She was here to visit with a friend, that was all.   
Finally, after a fairly good amount of time, she decided to get up and walk amongst the living. She went into her suitcase and pulled out the same teal slacks and blazer number that harkened back to her first day at the helm of White Base. Mirai shook her head, wondering if she had meant to pack the thing, then put it on.   
She left the guest room and fumbled her way downstairs through the unfamiliar house and to the kitchen. Gwynneth was there already, just setting the table with some breakfast foodstuffs.   
"Good morning, Miss Mirai," she said.   
"Good morning," Mirai responded, "you're certainly up early today."   
Gwynneth laughed. "No, not really."   
"Is Bright awake yet?"   
"Oh yes, I put him to work an hour ago. I think he's out trying to fix the alignment on the Honey Wagon." Gwynneth seemed to get an idea. "Breakfast is almost ready, would you mind fetching him for me?"   
Mirai blinked at the slight look in Gwynneth's eye, then nodded. "Certainly."   
Once again, Mirai was sent fumbling around the unfamiliar house. She made her way out the back door and heard a high-pitched whine of a hovercraft. She followed it around the corner of the house and found the machine whirring away, hovering above the ground due to the low levels of Menovsky particles its engine was generating.   
Bright was at its front end, holding on to the front bumper with his left hand and fiddling with one of the propellant nozzles with his right. It looked as though he was trying to turn a rather stubborn nut. When he let go of the machine, it began to creep away from him, slowly, by inches, picking up speed bit by bit until Bright clamped his hand down on the bumper again.   
Mirai suppressed a bit of a giggle and went over. She took over on the bumper. "I thought you were supposed to be on vacation," she said.   
"Guess I shouldn't have come home," Bright responded around a chuckle, smiling his thanks at her.   
"Your mother says breakfast is ready."   
"All right, I'll just get this nozzle back in alignment and… there." There came a substantial click from the connection and something moved back into place, stopping the machine's cock-eyed motion.   
"So, this is a honey wagon?" Mirai asked. "What does it do?"   
"Spreads fertilizer."   
"What kind?"   
"You don't wanna know."   
She gave and uncomfortable look and took a step back from the machine as Bright turned it off. He wiped his hands free of dirt and grime with a rag and they both returned to the kitchen for breakfast. Meantime, Clarisse had appeared for the meal and Gwynneth was just sitting down to eat as well when the comm unit out in the front sitting room chimed.   
"I got it," said Clarisse, jumping up and bouncing to the other room. She returned a few moments later to interrupt the small talk of the other three. "Hey, Bright?" she said with uncertainty. "There's a guy on the line for you. Says his name is Amuro and he told me to tell you 'tiger.' Does that mean something?"   
Bright and Mirai both paused, growing serious, then looked to each other for a moment before Bright took off into the other room. He donned the headphones of the comm unit and the three ladies heard him from the kitchen.   
"Amuro, what's happening? What? When? She's going where? What _about_ Oscar? They couldn't have… Okay, catch the next shuttle that comes here, all four of you. Only split up if you have to. Do you still have your pager? Good, keep it on. Right. Okay." And the conversation ended there.   
Bright practically burst back into the room. "Mirai, it's a Seven-R!"   
"What?! Who?" Mirai exclaimed, standing.   
"Amuro didn't know yet. Sayla and Marker are on their way here, now. They've got all the proof."   
"Bright?" Gwynneth asked, looking about as puzzled as Clarisse next to her. "What is it, what's going on?"   
Bright and Mirai exchanged glances; what to tell them? Ultimately, it was Bright that answered. "Sorry, mother," he said in all seriousness, "the less you know, the better. Mirai and I have to go somewhere for a while."   
They both rushed out of the room, leaving their partially eaten breakfast. After a quick stop in their rooms, they were both in the hover car that was sitting out front of the house.   
Bright started the hover car and stepped on the gas as soon as they were both in. As they sped away from the farm house, Clarisse and Gwynneth standing on the porch still looking mystified, Mirai fingered the sidearm that Bright had pushed into her hand before leaving.   
"Seven-R," she mused, "I can't believe someone is going to attack Side Six. It doesn't make sense."   
"Not to us, anyway," stated Bright, "but if the Federation attacks a neutral colony, it'll start the war all over again."   
"Right," agreed Mirai, "and it wouldn't be just a fight between Earth and one colony, all the colonies would be outraged."   
"Exactly. Mirai, I have this sinking feeling that that's exactly what someone out there wants."   
"And no one else knows anything about this, so it's up to us to stop it. But who could have the military resources to do such a thing?"   
Bright scowled and gripped the steering wheel tighter, gritting his teeth. "It doesn't matter," he said, "I intend to stop it, no matter who's behind it."   
"Even if-"   
"Yes. If you put a tiger into a cage, it will eventually be tamed. But sometimes, a tiger is at its best when it's untamed." 

_ "No! Absolutely not! I forbid it!" Daniel Noah's voice boomed through the house. "I will not have any child of mine toting a gun and shooting at their fellow Human beings! My children are not killers!"_   
_ "The R&D corps does nothing of the kind!" Bright snapped back. "And besides, father, if no one in the Federation fought, Zeon would wipe out the entire planet!"_   
_ "So you're just going to sink to their level, is that it, Bright?"_   
_ "I'm not fighting to conquer, I'm fighting to defend!"_   
_ "You're acting completely childish! What's gotten into you? Before the colony fell on Australia, you would never have even considered this. It's like you've turned into some kind of wild animal, a tiger that needs to be tamed!"_   
_ "Even wild animals don't ignore their own when they need to be defended."_   
_ "My answer is still 'no,' Bright. I won't have it!"_   
_ Bright clenched his fists at his sides, gritted his teeth and looked away. "I'm sorry to hear that, father. But I've already enlisted."_   
_ "What!?"_   
_ "You heard me! I leave tomorrow for R&D officer training. I'm an adult and I have to make my own decisions."_   
_ Daniel matched Bright's particularly angry glare and his voice grew soft, menacing. "19 years is hardly an adult. If you leave for the war tomorrow, you're no longer any son of mine."_   
_ Bright didn't even flinch. "Then, that's my choice, too."_

Mirai sensed Bright's tension and she reached a hand over and put it on top of his on the steering wheel. "I trust your decision," she stated, "no matter where this leads, I'm with you all the way."   
"That's a dangerous promise, Mirai," he answered, "are you sure?"   
Mirai looked forward toward the road ahead of them again. "Please don't make me repeat myself."   
Unconsciously, Bright let go of the steering wheel with one hand and held on to Mirai's hand instead.   
"Thank you, Mirai. It's a great comfort." 

The spaceport was bustling with activity and Marker was extremely glad of it. It would be easier to make it through security without raising any flags. Standing in line, only a few places removed from the security check, he tightened his grip on the handle of the case carrying his laptop. Depending on whether or not Sayla made it through, it was very likely the most valuable thing he was carrying; not for the computer itself, but for the data on it.   
Next in line, Marker said one more silent prayer that his faked ID would process through just one more time with no problems. He finished just as he handed the card to the security guard at the checkpoint.   
It seemed to Marker as if the swipe through the reader machine took hours on end. Hours compressed into a mere second and it fell upon him with a force that almost knocked him over. It was all Marker could do to suppress his flinch into a mere blink.   
The guard read off the display on the reader machine. "Welcome to England, Mister Harrison," he said, handing the ID back to Marker and waiving him through.   
"Thanks," Marker mumbled, scurrying through and away. Once he was a fair distance off, he allowed himself a small sigh of relief. He was safely in England and now it was a foregone conclusion that Bright would be able to see the data Sayla had collected.   
Bright would know what to do about it.   
A hand clamped down on Marker's shoulder and he jumped, whipping his head around to see who it was. He found Mirai smiling back at him and sighed in relief once more. "Miss Mirai, thank goodness," he said.   
"Marker, you poor thing," she responded warmly, "you need to relax. But first, where's Sayla?"   
"We split up for the security check," Marker explained, "she's coming out of terminal number five."   
Mirai turned to a section of wall near a corner of the terminal. Bright was leaning there, his eyes locked on the two of them as if waiting for some signal. Mirai held up her hand and waved nonchalantly, fingers splayed out in an array of five. Bright mimicked it back, then disappeared around the corner.   
"C'mon," Mirai said, grabbing Marker's hand and pulling him along, "he'll meet us back at the car."   
"R-right," Marker responded, following.   
As Mirai and Marker left, Bright headed down toward the far end of the terminal to find Sayla. Terminal five was about half way in the middle. Once he had arrived, there, Bright took up position by the back wall and waited, watching the security checkpoint for that familiar head of blond hair.   
He didn't have to wait very long. Sayla came through the checkpoint a few moments later and hastily shoved her ID into her pocket as though it were some sort of secret. She and Bright caught each others' eyes and approached one another. Sayla glanced back over her should at the man going through the checkpoint after her, nervously.   
"You made it," Bright said.   
Sayla responded somewhat differently. Out of the blue, she plopped her bag and her laptop on the floor, threw her arms around Bright's neck, and kissed him full on the mouth. Following that, she hugged him closer.   
"Call me Artesia and pretend I'm your girlfriend," she whispered into his ear in a tone that told him he shouldn't ask questions.   
He did anyway. "Okay… why?"   
"I told that guy I was visiting my boyfriend, He wouldn't stop hitting on me during the flight."   
"Maybe you should take it as a compliment," Bright said, giving Sayla an arm and picking up her suitcase, "c'mon, let's get out of here before things get out of hand."   
Sayla agreed and picked up the case carrying her all-important laptop. She and Bright left the spaceport terminal, managing to avoid a security guard of the wandering variety on the way. Mirai and Marker were there waiting and they both gave Bright and Sayla strange looks. The two of them slipped their arms out of the others' and Bright even cleared his throat.   
"What about Amuro and the others?" Sayla asked as all four of them piled into the car.   
"They won't get here for a few more hours yet," Mirai responded.   
"I spoke with Oscar," said Marker, "he was supposed to get here at about the same time as the two of us. Has he shown up yet?"   
Bright practically slammed his own car door closed and his face deepened into a scowl. "Oscar's been arrested," he said bluntly.   
Mirai, Sayla, and Marker all gasped in surprise, shock and puzzlement clearly evident on their faces. Bright took a moment to allow the news to sink in, then continued as he started the car. "Apparently, Kai asked him to check into another lead. He got a bit too much attention when he started poking around. According to Amuro, they arrested him just shortly after Sayla managed to hack into the database. They're charging him with conspiracy."   
"Why conspiracy?" Sayla asked. "What basis do they have? Unless they know that it was Kai that tipped us both off."   
"They don't appear to," stated Bright, "otherwise they would have come for him already. Which means…"   
"The connection is White Base," Mirai realized, "so, they'll be coming for us eventually."   
Bright didn't answer, choosing to silently drive the hover car down the road ahead instead.   
The answer was apparent, even so. 

Amuro and Kai waited anxiously at the spaceport terminal. Before leaving Side Six, they had agreed with Hayato and Frau that they did, in fact, have to split up. Kats, Lets, and Kikka, not wanting to be left out, had volunteered their "services" as part of their disguise. Frau, Hayato and the three children had taken the flight as a family on holiday and Amuro and Kai took it as business partners. They were on the same flight, but split up for the security check.   
And so, Amuro and Kai were left waiting with still no sign of either the "family" or of Bright. It was going on ten minutes before Kai tapped Amuro on the shoulder and pointed to a section of wall along the back. Bright was leaning there, dressed in civvies, looking straight at them. Amuro almost looked straight past him, but was caught by Bright's uncanny ability to communicate his intentions with eyes alone.   
_ Don't come, I'll find you._   
Amuro nodded, then Bright moved off down the terminal.   
"C'mon, Kai, let's get out of here," Amuro suggested.   
"I'm all for that," Kai agreed, "but where are we going without Mister Bright?"   
"Parking lot." Amuro picked up his bag and started off toward the exit.   
"Parking lot?" Kai inquired, stupidly, scrambling to gather his own luggage. "But how do you know that? Hey, Amuro, wait up!" 

Hayato had to admit it to himself; it felt so right. Okay, so maybe the threat of a looming conspiracy to attack Side Six wasn't right, but the sleeping Kikka leaning on his shoulder… He felt like he had a family, somehow. And that… that was what felt so right.   
Still, this was no time for such things. They had to find the others, quickly. At his elbow, Frau Beau was also scanning the terminal for one of the other three they were to meet. She and Hayato spotted Bright at the same time. He nodded with his head for them to follow, then headed toward the exit. Frau gathered up Kats and Lets, who had plopped down on the floor and were amusing themselves with Haro, and the false family was off to the parking lot.   
Once outside, Bright fell back and allowed them to catch up.   
"Hello, Mister Bright," Frau said as warmly as she could given the situation.   
"Frau Beau, Hayato," Bright returned the greeting, "wish this was happening under better circumstances."   
Lets elbowed Kats. "Who's he?" he asked.   
Kats looked at Lets as though he had just grown horns and sprouted wings. "You idiot, it's Mister Bright."   
"That can't be Mister Bright. He always wears a uniform."   
"You're an idiot, Lets."   
"You're just a big, mean dork, Kats!"   
The two boys' "conversation" had picked up volume to the point where the three adults had been able to hear every word. Bright put his hands on his hips and looked skyward for patience.   
"Geeze, I didn't know I was _that_ stiff." 

General McAllis was a massive mountain of a man. At age 51, he was still very much in tip-top military shape. It was a mark of pride for him. As a member of the Joint Chiefs of the Earth Sphere Federation, it was important for him to set a good example. Appearance was all-important to a Feddie officer and McAllis followed this tradition to the letter; hair short and kept clean, uniform pressed and crisp, boots polished to a gleaming shine, and posture straight, tall, and proud.   
McAllis was one of the Feddie Forces elite and wasn't too proud to show it. He was a veteran of the battle of Luum and the mastermind behind the Solar Flare System employed at the Battle of Solomon.   
But now, the One Year War was over. So, what was he to do? Rub shoulders with the dirty Zeke soldiers he would just as soon have killed six months earlier. And not just Zekes, but whiney, scared, nervous colonists of all kinds.   
He was on his way to still another such disgusting meeting, cursing it on his way, when his assistant, Lieutenant Kutani Hadagawa, came rushing his was carrying a folder.   
"General McAllis, sir!" Hadagawa called, catching up with McAllis and saluting. He continued only after McAllis saluted back, as an officer should. "You asked me to keep you informed on the Ophiucus situation, sir."   
"You have new information?"   
"Yes, sir," Hadagawa responded, handing McAllis the folder he had been carrying.   
The General opened it and found a collection of still photographs that were obviously taken from a security camera video somewhere. Wordlessly, McAllis looked to Hadagawa for an explanation.   
"These were taken at a spaceport in England about three hours ago."   
McAllis' face twisted into a deranged half smile as he paged through the photos. He held one up closer to his face to get a better look.   
"Well, well," he mused, "if it isn't that Newtype Gundam pilot of White Base; Amuro Ray."   
"Yes, sir. And that man with him is Kai Shiden, the former pilot of White Base's Guncannon. That's the picture that gave us positive ID on them both. The rest are all partial profiles and fragments of faces."   
McAllis closed the folder and handed it back to Hadagawa. "Any word on Sayla Mass?"   
"Nothing conclusive, sir, but a security guard at that same spaceport reported seeing someone who matched her description. Also, a man and a woman who might have been Hayato Kobayashi and Frau Beau, both also of White Base."   
McAllis studied Hadagawa for a moment. "You must forgive me for saying so, Lieutenant, but you look like the proverbial cat that swallowed the equally proverbial canary. Is there anything else?"   
Hadagawa's face twisted into that same rather disturbing smile that McAllis was wearing. "I ran a check, sir. It turns out Bright Noah's family owns a farm in that area of England."   
McAllis grunted out some satisfaction in the back of his throat. "So, the gang's all there, then. Is this enough to arrest them all, get them out of my hair?"   
"Unfortunately no, sir. For all the courts know, they could just be having a reunion, with the exception of Miss Mass. We can, however, get a warrant to search the Noah farmstead."   
McAllis nodded. "Do it. I want this little leak in Ophiucus secrecy plugged before the next day is out. Dismissed."   
"Sir!" Hadagawa saluted, then turned on his heel and went back the way he came.   
McAllis paused in the hallway for a moment, considering the situation that was brewing.   
"Bright Noah, huh? Well, my young Mister White Base commander. Just what do you have in mind, hmm?" 

Bright wasn't sure whether to laugh or weep. Here they all were, together again, in order to fight a conspiracy to kill several million people living aboard Side Six, and what were Mirai, Sayla, and Marker doing when he finally got back to the farmhouse with the others?   
Looking at baby pictures with his mother and sister.   
He recognized the photo album almost immediately and a sudden sense of total dread and unease filled the pit of his stomach, Jesus, they were never going to take him seriously ever again!   
That was it, the last straw. Bright flopped down in the nearest sitting room chair while everyone else crowded around the book of photos eagerly.   
"Why me, God?" he muttered to himself.   
"Hey, momma, find the one with the newspaper bin and all the drool," Clarisse chimed.   
Bright jumped up and was across the room in an instant, snatching up the album and snapping it closed. "This is hardly the time, you know," he said, dejectedly.   
"Nonsense," countered Gwynneth, "you all seemed so tense about something, it seemed to be the perfect time for something amusing. Not that you'd tell me what's going on or anything, will you."   
Bright hugged the photo album close to himself and looked away. "Mother, I… I can't. It's just too dangerous."   
The room was silent for several moment. Bright finally handed the photo album back to his mother, then headed for out of the room.   
"Bright, where are you going?" Gwynneth asked after him.   
"There's something I have to go and do," he said simply before exiting through the back door of the house.   
Gwynneth shook her head. "What on Earth has gotten into him?"   
"Excuse me, ma'am," Amuro ventured, "I think Mister Bright deserves a little more credit than that."   
"What do you mean? And just who are you, anyway?"   
"I'm Amuro Ray, ma'am. And what I mean is… well, he's the one who's got a big decision to make. And believe me when I say that he's not keeping this from you because he doesn't trust you."   
Gwynneth stared at Amuro for several moments, not entirely certain what he was saying.   
"He trusts _you_ completely," Amuro elaborated.   
The sun finally dawned on Gwynneth. Her eyes widened and her shoulder dropped with sudden realization. "Dear God in heaven," she murmured.   
Clarisse, still confused, looked from one to the other and back again, trying and failing to suss out the situation. 

Daniel Michael Noah.   
Three words. Three words that comprised a name and three words that Bright had never before been forced to see chiseled into stone.   
Sitting at the top of a hillside under a large oak tree, overlooking the entire Noah farmstead, the marker seemed to Bright to be small, cold, and entirely too dead. The Sun had just gone down and twilight was setting in over the farm, like a blanket of darkness that threatened to blot out the light forever.   
Bright sat down on the grass just in front of the memorial marker and studied it. Aside of the three words etched into it at the top, there were several smaller words, as if there was a need to explain what had happened.   
"Daniel Michael Noah. 0037-0079 UC. Loving husband and father. Now unmoored in the sea of the sky." 

_ He had been aboard White Base for almost a week already, but the ship still amazed him. The capabilities of it, the sheer size and power! Bright was going over some new information that had just been declassified for his level as he sat in the Mess, eating breakfast._   
_ Menovsky particle propulsion system and stealth, fully computerized flight systems, and the biggest fighter storage capability of any ship in the Federal Fleet. The Federation was pulling out all the stops for the V Project, and how! Bright had never been one to listen to unsubstantiated rumors, but he had overheard from a group of enlisted men that there was even the possibility of Federation Mobile Suits._   
_ Continuing his reading, Bright absently pushed a banana into his mouth and began chewing. So fascinated was he by the new ship specs that he didn't even taste the piece of fruit, let alone notice the shadow that fell over his place at the table._   
_ "Cadet Noah?"_   
_ Bright looked up to see who was so rudely interrupting his studies and found Captain Paolo Cassius standing over him. He shot up out of his seat, mouth still full of banana, and saluted crisply. "Fir! Caget Noohh pweshent, fir!"_   
_ Paolo raised and eyebrow at him. "You can swallow, Cadet," he said._   
_ Bright managed to swallow the banana in one gulp. "Sorry, Captain."_   
_ Paolo shook his head. "No, no, it's my fault for bothering you when you're off duty." The captain paused as though bracing himself to let the other shoe drop. "Mister Bright, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. We just received the daily status report from Jaburo and there was a message for you attached to it. I'm sorry to say that your family has informed us that your father has been killed in a shuttle accident while on route to Side Six."_   
_ Bright stood there numbly for a moment before he managed to say anything. "I… don't understand, sir."_   
_ Paolo patiently elaborated. "It appears there was a thruster malfunction and the shuttle plunged back into the atmosphere too steeply. I'm sorry."_   
_ The enormity of it finally managed to sink into Bright's brain. Ignoring protocol, he plopped back down into his vacated seat and stared at the table as Captain Paolo silently turned to leave. The captain was only a few steps away when Bright got to his feet again and called after him._   
_ "Captain Paolo, sir?"_   
_ "Yes, Mister Bright?"_   
_ "I know that White Base is supposed to be on radio silence, but… sir, is there any way I could get a message through to my family? Any way at all?"_   
_ Paolo shook his head sadly, obvious empathy in his expression. "The V Project is too sensitive. I'm afraid there's no way."_   
_ Bright nodded. "I understand, sir. Thank you for telling me."_

"I know what you'd say, father," Bright said to the stone marker, "how could I ignore my family in favor of the war when they needed me the most?"   
There was no forthcoming response from the stone.   
"Damned unfair of you, you know. To go and get killed like that. How the hell am I ever supposed to stop being angry with you now?"   
In the space where there might have been an answer, Bright realized he had been sitting there for a while and that twilight had given way to stars and moon when a succession of blue and red flashes split the darkness and caught his eye. He stood up and from his vantage point on the hill, he could make out two cars, one from the local authorities and one from the Military Police, coming up the farm's private drive. He muttered a swear under his breath and took off toward the gate.   
He ran as fast as his legs would carry him, slowing down only to take a shortcut through the cornfield. Bright burst out of the corn and back out on the drive near the gate just as the two cars were pulling up.   
From out of the MP car came a Japanese man who looked only a few years older than Bright, wearing a pristinely pressed uniform of a Federal Forces lieutenant. Bright nonchalantly leaned on the gate as the soldier walked up to him, pulling out a piece of paper.   
"Lieutenant Bright Noah?"   
"Something I can do for you, sir?" Bright asked calmly, not moving from his place against the gate.   
"Lieutenant Kutani Hadagawa," said the officer, unfolding the paper and handing it to Bright, "and I have a warrant to search your family's farm, Lieutenant, from the office of General McAllis of the Joint Chiefs."   
Careful not to stop leaning on the gate, even as Hadagawa reached for the release in order to open it, Bright skimmed over the warrant. He breathed a slight, inward sigh of relief, then turned back to Hadagawa. "Sorry," Bright said, handing the paper back, "but this warrant isn't valid here."   
"What do you mean?" Hadagawa growled, glaring knives at Bright.   
Bright pulled out his own small piece of paper from his pocket. "As of two days ago, this farm is protected by the Federation's Farmland Protection Act of 0076. Formerly known as bill A-20. The Noah farm has class B protection as a minor historical site. Any search warrant that's valid here has to contain the related preservation clause. Under A-20, I can't let you in until you've got that."   
Looking over Bright's piece of paper, Hadagawa growled under his breath, his glare deepening.   
"So," Bright said, snatching the paper away again, "General McAllis, huh? Wasn't he behind the Solar Flare at Solomon?"   
The muscles in Hadagawa's jaw jumped as he ground his teeth together. "We know what you and your White Base pals are up to, Lieutenant Bright."   
"Do you really, now? Well good, then we all know what to expect. I suggest you leave, Lieutenant Hadagawa, before you get caught up in red tape."   
Hadagawa stalked back to the MP car, waving the other three officers along to do the same. "We'll be back, Noah," he said, just before getting into the car and driving off.   
As soon as the two cars were out of sight, Bright wasted no time and took off back up the drive toward the house. He burst back into the sitting room where everyone was gathered and trying to relax somewhat, huffing for breath. Everyone looked up at him and there was a pause. It only took a moment for the old White Base crew to recognize Bright's time-sensitive-trouble face.   
"How long?" Mirai asked.   
"Morning," Bright responded, "let's get moving. Everyone come with me. Mother, Clarisse, someone's going to come by in the morning. Feel free to answer any questions, you two have nothing to hide at all."   
Everyone but Gwynneth and Clarisse began to file out of the room, grabbing the bags they had arrived with on the way. Bright was poised to be the last one out of the house when Gwynneth caught his hand and stopped him.   
"Bright," she said as he turned back to her, "you seem to have some very capable people with you."   
"You might hear things about me in a few days…"   
"I know. And I trust you. You just do what you have to do. Your sister and I will be just fine." She pulled his head toward hers and planted a kiss on his forehead. "Now go."   
Bright hesitated, desperate not to leave his mother's grasp, but took a step back at length and straightened into a crisp salute. No further words passed between them before Bright turned and left and joined the waiting group outside.   
Gwynneth and Clarisse watched out the front window as Bright led the group down the hill and they all disappeared like ghosts into the dark cornfield. Once they were all out of sight, she collapsed onto the sitting room couch, face buried in hands and weeping. Clarisse sat down next to her and they shared a frightened embrace.   
Clarisse continued looking toward the place where the White Base crew had vanished.   
She knew where Bright would take them. 

********* 

Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam: The White Base Rebellion… 

"I've been going over these plans," Marker broke in, "it takes a massive amount of Mobile Suits. But not just any, they have to be small enough to enter the colony's power management core."   
"But the Federation doesn't have any Mobile Suits that small," Amuro put in, "they'd have to be not much bigger than an actual person."   
"Like HSS-79," Bright mused to himself.   
***   
"Listen, Mirai," he ventured once they were outside, "about Bright…"   
"I think I know what you're going to say, Amuro, and yes I do know."   
"I'm just worried, that's all. You both seem a little distracted. And, White Base was one thing, but with this…"   
***   
Bright took a step back upon recognition. "Clarisse!?"   
Bright's sister looked ten times as speechless as any of the White Base crew upon seeing the new Mobile Suits. "I didn't know this is was you guys were doing! Bright, are you guys in some kinda trouble or something?"   
"Miss Clarisse, what are you doing here?" Amuro exclaimed. "Mister Bright, what are we going to… Mister Bright?"   
***   
"What have I done?" he gasped out.   
"Mister Bright?" he vaguely heard Amuro's concerned inquiry. "What happened? Were you hit?" Amuro shook Bright's shoulder, desperately trying to get his attention.   
"That was… that was a GM Mobile Suit," Bright breathed, still in a haze, "those were Federation soldiers. What on Earth have I done?"   
***   
"Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to steal the Gunmarauders."   
***   
Chapter two: Steal Away Silently, Gunmarauder! Who will survive?   



	3. Chapter Two: Steal Away Silently, Gunmar...

Mobile Suit Gundam: The White Base Rebellion   
by Berzerker_prime 

Chapter two: Steal Away Silently, Gunmarauder!

June 8th UC 0080   
England 

It was several hours past midnight by the time they reached the place Bright was leading them to. Set into the side of the bottom of a hill, a large cave mouth, hidden amongst the trees and other plant life of the woods, yawned open at them as they all tiredly approached and entered.   
The attrition rate for the hike had been exactly three; Kats, Lets, and Kikka were all fast asleep on the piggy backs of Bright, Amuro, and Hayato respectively. Everyone was exhausted, but there was still considerable work to be done. Once they were all inside and the cave entrance sufficiently hidden, Bright called everyone together.   
"All right," he said, "first thing that needs to be done is to bring everyone completely up to speed. Kai? Sayla? Marker? Fire away."   
They all plopped down in a circle on the cave floor and Sayla and Marker both turned on their computers.   
"Well, we all know what seven-R means," said Sayla at length, "the attack at Side Six could take place any day. But, certain conditions have to be met first."   
"I've been going over these plans," Marker broke in, "it takes a massive amount of Mobile Suits. But not just any, they have to be small enough to enter the colony's power management core."   
"But the Federation doesn't have any Mobile Suits that small," Amuro put in, "they'd have to be not much bigger than an actual person."   
"Like HSS-79," Bright mused to himself.   
Everyone looked at him curiously. Marker took particular interest in the comment. "You don't think they built any after all, do you Mister Bright?"   
"I've never heard of that model," stated Amuro, "is it something new the Federation was putting together?"   
"Sort of," said Bright, "the original V Project called for the production of four Mobile Suit prototypes; the combat model, the heavy arms model, the land engagement model, and a reconnaissance and commando model. The first three were the Gundam, the Guncannon, and the Guntank respectively, but the plans for the last one never made it to production due to time and resource constraints. Sayla, search your data for any reference to the HSS-79 Gunmarauder."   
"Right," Sayla responded, tapping away at the keyboard of her laptop.   
"Marker, I need you to search for a name for me. General Louis McAllis. See if there's any connection to the attack plans."   
"McAllis, sir? Isn't he one of the Joint Chiefs."   
"Yes."   
Marker paused for several moments before turning to his task. "Yes, sir."   
"Got it," Sayla said from her place on the ground, "the plans for the Gunmarauder are all right here in the database. The plans require five of them in all; one command, one demolition, two standard combat, and one stealth. Looks like they've been busy working on these plans since you last saw them, Mister Bright."   
"Wonderful," Kai groused, bitterly, "I suppose we get to fight them all, somehow."   
That got the wheels turning in Bright's head and he pondered for a moment, until Marker chimed up.   
"This can't be good," he said, "sir, it turns out that the access codes Sayla used to get into the system were those of General McAllis. He's listed as the top official for the operation."   
Bright growled at the back of his throat. "I figured as much. He sent one of his adjutants to search the farm. The guy tripped over one little preservation clause at the last moment. We got lucky. Take us through the attack plan, Marker."   
Marker nodded and pulled up the plans again. "It's called Ophiucus. The first phase involves a massive amount of GM and Ball mobile suits. They're going to be deployed at several places around the Side Six cluster and they'll attack head-on. Meanwhile, the Gunmarauders will slip into the colonies under the cover of the stealth version's Menovsky broadcast. I guess they figure there'll been so much around all ready that no one will notice a bit more. The Gunmarauders' mission is to penetrate to the energy core of each colony and take it out, causing a chain reaction in the core and causing it to melt down, taking the whole colony with it. Meltdown takes approximately five minutes which is just enough time for the Gunmarauders to clear out."   
Amuro whistled his awe. "Those Gunmarauders must be pretty fast."   
"It must be because of their lower mass," Hayato theorized.   
Bright said nothing, chin resting in hand as he considered Ophiucus for several moments. His other hand was tapping away on his knee as if part of his thinking process.   
"Something on your mind, Bright?" Mirai asked.   
"I was just thinking… Ophiucus is totally dependant on the Gunmarauders for its viability. Sayla, does the data say where the HSS-79s are being stored?"   
Sayla nodded, reading off information from her screen. "They're being stored at the Earthside V Project store houses. They must have decided not to move them."   
"And that was… if I remember right, that wasn't too far from here, a half a day's travel at most, by road."   
Amuro stared across the circle at Bright. "Mister Bright, are you proposing what I think you are?"   
Bright reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He took a scan card out of it and held it up. "No one's thought much about the V Project since it was declassified," he said, "and no one ever thought to cancel security clearances. Our friend Hadagawa messed up once, it's safe to assume he'll do it again. I can get us in. Amuro, Kai, Hayato, Sayla, study up on the Gunmarauder specs. You four and I will be the pilots. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to steal the Gunmarauders." 

Sitting at the entrance of the cave as the sun was beginning to peak out from behind the eastern horizon, Bright, knees to chest and elbows resting there, bobbed his head a couple of times. Each time, he was startled back into wakefulness long enough only to begin to nod off once again.   
It was just happening once more, his head dropping down to rest on his   
inviting, waiting, beckoning elbows, when a hand nudged his shoulder, causing him to jump halfway to the cave ceiling.   
"Mister Bright?" It was Frau Beau who was, thankfully, waking him up. "I think it's time someone took over on watch, now. You look really tired."   
Bright shook his head. "No, no, I'm fine, really. Get some sleep, Frau Beau."   
Frau sat down at the other side of the cave entrance, opposite Bright. "Nope," she said, "I'm not getting sleep until you've had at least four hours. I can't really do much else, so I'm going to make sure you all don't get overly exhausted, at least."   
Bright blinked. "What do you mean by that, Frau?"   
Frau sighed and looked off toward the sunrise, a pondersome look in her eyes that betrayed a certain amount of apprehension. "To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm doing here. Everyone else has something to contribute. Amuro, Hayato, Kai, and Sayla are all good pilots, Marker is an excellent strategist, and you and Mirai... well, I don't think we could do this without the two of you. I just don't know what I'm supposed to be doing."   
"Frau, you shouldn't underestimate yourself. You've got excellent communications skills, and we need someone we can count on to relay Marker's readings to those of us piloting the Gunmarauders."   
"But, Mirai could do that just as well as I could."   
"She'll be busy coordinating from the con and helming the ground unit. Frau, she'll need you there and so will I. This isn't going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Look, this is hardly a military setting. If you want to pull out, I'll respect that. There's not much I can do to stop you, but I can tell you that you will be severely missed."   
Frau sighed, then looked back to Bright. "I suppose you're right. I guess I just needed to hear it from someone. I'll stick it out."   
"Good girl. Now, go on and get some sleep."   
Frau blinked several times, looking at Bright as though he'd grown some horns somewhere during the conversation. "How did the subject change? I came out to take over on watch."   
"I'm just fine, perfectly awake."   
"Go sleep before I call Mirai out on you."   
Bright rolled his eyes skyward. "I surrender," he said, getting up and wandering back into the cave, "four hours, then wake me up."   
"You got it, Mister Bright."   
Neither one of them had noticed Haro roll out and take up a position next to Frau. "She has her fingers crossed. She has her fingers crossed," the little robot intoned.   
"Haro!" Frau snapped. 

Mirai awoke some hours later to the sound of tapping keys. Sitting up and working the kinks out of her neck, she found Amuro busy working away at Sayla's laptop. He had called up the Gunmarauder specs and was pouring over them intently. When he spotted Mirai awake, he looked up apologetically.   
"Sorry, Mirai, I didn't mean to wake you," he said in a hushed voice.   
"Don't worry about it," she responded, "I should be awake anyway. Anything new going on?"   
Amuro put a finger over his mouth, signaling her to keep it down, then pointed toward the darker, back end of the cave. Bright was sprawled out on the ground, using a bag for a pillow, out like a light and snoring softly.   
"He's finally getting some sleep," Amuro said.   
"Good," said Mirai, "I was starting to get worried. Where is everyone else?"   
"Frau and Hayato are keeping watch, Kai and Sayla are going over the other set of Gunmarauder specs, and Marker's trying to learn what he can about the V Project warehouse security."   
"Do you really think we'll just be able to go right in and take the Mobile Suits?"   
"I'm not sure. Risking everything on Bright's V Project clearance does seem like a long shot, but what other choice do we have? It's not like we can just give up and let them attack Side Six."   
"No, we can't do that," Mirai mused in agreement, again casting her glance over at the sleeping Bright.   
Amuro looked up from the laptop, thoughtfully, and noticed Mirai's gaze. He closed the laptop and silently motioned Mirai to follow him out the cave, past Frau and Hayato.   
"Listen, Mirai," he ventured once they were outside, "about Bright…"   
"I think I know what you're going to say, Amuro, and yes I _do_ know."   
"I'm just worried, that's all. You both seem a little distracted. And, White Base was one thing, but with this…"   
"Don't worry about it. We both know what has to come first. It's not like anything's started yet, anyway. He's made it clear it's my choice."   
Amuro nodded. "It must sound like a strange concern coming from me. Usually it's Bright or Sayla that worries about things like this."   
"No, it's good that someone's keeping us in line. This isn't the time. Amuro, could you please make sure no one wakes Bright up for a while? He needs sleep before tonight."   
"Sure thing, Mirai," Amuro responded, then wandered back into the cave.   
Mirai squinted in the sunlight and took a good looking around at the spot she had only seen at night. It was spotted with a wooded environment, not so thick that one wouldn't be able to get through, but thick enough to hide in. There was plenty of greenery to use as camouflage once they stole the Gunmarauders. The cave was a hole in the wall of a long cliffside that wound around the bottom edge if a steeply rising hill. There was enough of a ledge that they could place someone as lookout and sure enough, there were Frau and Hayato keeping watch.   
Bright had managed to find a good spot for them to hide. Mirai wondered, briefly, how he had known about it. She would have to ask him later. 

It was late in the afternoon when Bright awoke, smells of cooking food wafting into his nose and reminding him that he was hungry. Sitting up, he realized that someone had covered him with a blanket. He pushed it aside and got to his feet.   
"Good afternoon," Amuro greeted from a bit closer to the cave entrance.   
"What time is it?" Bright asked, working a kink out of his neck.   
"About sixteen-hundred."   
Bright snorted a laugh. "Frau Beau let me sleep too long."   
Lets and Kikka came darting into the cave, each carrying a bowl with some of the food Bright had smelled earlier.   
"Food's ready!" they intoned together.   
"Here, Amuro," Lets said, handing his bowl to the former Gundam pilot. Kikka likewise handed hers to Bright.   
"You're a doll, Kikka," Bright said, patting her head.   
All smiles, Lets and Kikka darted back out of the cave, off to do more chores. Once they were out of earshot, Bright sat back down on the ground with his bowl and a troubled expression.   
"It worries me that they're along," he said to Amuro.   
"I know what you mean," Amuro responded, sitting down next to him, "but we can't just leave them where McAllis' people could get a hold of them. We'd be putting them in even more danger."   
Bright grunted his agreement around a bite of food. "No-win situation, I guess." Slowly chewing, he poked the remainder of his food with his fork. "Amuro, have you heard the name Shiro Amada?"   
"Can't say I have," said Amuro, a mouth full of food, "why? Should I have?"   
"He was a Mobile Suit team commander in South East Asia during the war. They listed him as MIA following a battle with some new Zeon Mobile Armor. Rumors say that's only because they couldn't prove he defected."   
"To Zeon?"   
"Yeah. Something about a Zeon pilot. Strange thing is, his unit refuses to believe any of it. They're still out looking for him and they've made it clear they're not going to stop until they find him."   
"That's some loyalty."   
"Yeah, I suppose."   
There was a long pause as they both chewed.   
"There some reason you brought it up?" Amuro asked.   
Bright again poked at his food with his fork. "I just can't help but wonder; Amuro, do you think that some like that, who could command such loyalty in the people under him, could possibly be an…"   
"Could possibly be what, Bright?"   
"Nothing, just forget it." He motioned to the computer Amuro had been working with. "Are those the HSS-79 specs?"   
"Yeah," Amuro said, tapping away at the laptop anew, his bowl set aside, "this Mobile Suit is really something impressive. The demolition model has every bit as much power as the Gundam, but it's only about a quarter the size and it's twice as maneuverable. It's amazing."   
"And damned dangerous to have around, now that the war is over. I'm assigning you and Hayato to the combat models. Can you handle it?"   
"Not a problem. I assume you'll be in the command model?"   
Bright blinked. Well, well, a vote of confidence from Amuro. He nodded. "And Sayla gets the stealth and Kai the demolition."   
"What about Mirai, Frau, Marker, and the children?"   
"We'll be taking a command hover tank as well. They'll be coordinating for the five of us. You about done with those specs? I should study them for a bit."   
"I've been at it all day. They're all yours." Amuro handed the laptop to Bright, then began to wander outside. He paused at the cave entrance and looked back at Bright for a moment. "Hey, Bright," he ventured, "what are we going to do about Oscar?"   
Bright frowned and the muscles in his jaw jumped momentarily. "I haven't decided, yet," he said after a moment, never looking up from the computer.   
Amuro took the hint and left without pressing the issue further.   
Alone in the cave, now, Bright pushed thoughts of the captured Oscar out of mind and focused on the Gunmarauder specs. As commander, he had to have some knowledge of all the different models and excellent knowledge of his own. It was even money whether or not he had that kind of time.   
He started with the specs on the command model, deciding not to waste any time. It didn't have as much firepower as the combat or demolition models, but it was still quite impressive. The whole thing was controlled via an interface actually worn by the pilot; the Core Suit as it was called. It looked to be little more than a normal suit for a pilot with armor of some sort in strategic places, but those pieces of metal were in actuality a complex series of sensors designed to transfer the pilot's muscle impulses to the Mobile Suit, allowing Human-like movement.   
Obviously, the designers hadn't thought of comfort as a consideration.   
Any motions a Human alone wasn't capable of, such as flight thrust or weapons fire, were controlled through an interface on the left hand. Once calibrated to the pilot, simple twitches of various fingers controlled weapons fire, thrust, sensors, the beam saber, and radio.   
The Mobile Suit itself was capable of speeds as fast as the Gundam and maneuverability that would give any novice pilot a chance against the Red Comet himself. As for weaponry, the command model was equipped with a beam rifle and a beam saber; long range and close combat weapons.   
It was a couple of hours later that Bright finally decided he knew what he needed to know about the Gunmarauder. He came to only one persevering conclusion about it; in this man-sized suit of Neotitanium, the Federation had managed to wrap up one of the most frightening monsters the Earth sphere had ever seen.   
The fact that anyone was actually going to use them sent shivers up his spine the likes of which he hadn't felt since A Bao A Qu.   
The fact that he was that person nearly made him curl into a ball and hide from the world. 

They decided to call the cave Hades, after the ancient god of death and the underworld. It had been the first thing that popped into Bright's mind when Frau had brought up the point that a code name might be a good idea.   
"The Mobile Suits will still be on Federation frequencies, won't they?" she had asked. "Wouldn't it be a good idea in case they can hear us over their radios?"   
It was a detail that no one had considered and only served to prove the point Bright had made to Frau earlier; they needed everyone that was there.   
It was a pretty, comforting thought. But now that they were pulling up to the gates at the V Project facility in England, it was little comfort at all.   
The gate security system was automated, for which they were all quite grateful. People recognized faces, but machines only recognized data and numbers. Bright stopped the rental car Sayla had managed to get under her other name and approached the terminal.   
Two things to do; swipe a card, scan a retina. Easy enough. Unless, of course, the computer had been set to reject his clearance. There was one other catch he thought of just then as well; the computer would log his clearance, even if he did pass. McAllis would know exactly who it was that was working against him.   
Somehow, Bright didn't mind that.   
He had wasted enough time thinking about it. Steeling himself, Bright swiped his card through the scanner, then followed the prompt for the retina scan.   
The computer processed for an agonizing moment.   
Finally, the system gave him the green light. He wasn't certain whether to be relieved about that or not. The system asked how many were entering along with him. Bright made a mental head count and entered the number seven. There was a collective sigh of relief from the car as the gates slid open with a grating, metal on cement sound.   
"Looks like Hadagawa slipped up again after all," Mirai commented as Bright got back into the car and drove it inside the facility.   
"Let's not worry about that and just do this," Bright ordered.   
The car pulled up next to the warehouse of the facility, strategically out of the way of the doors. As everyone piled out of the car, Amuro and Hayato pulled the doors open with that same metal-cement grating sound. Some rather dim, only mostly sufficient lights came on in the warehouse, giving them some vision in the otherwise dark facility.   
There they were, all five of them, lined up against the back wall, standing proud and tall as if waiting for orders. The Gunmarauders looked like scaled down Gundams, only slightly deformed, troll-like. The head was out of proportion with the rest of it, bigger to accommodate the Human head that had to fit inside it. The things had no necks to speak of, shoulders hunching up in two bulbous connections to the arms.   
"Are those them?" Kai asked, mouth agape.   
"Safe to say so, yeah," Hayato mumbled.   
Amuro approached them like a kid in a candy store, eyes alight with excitement. "Wait a minute," he said suddenly, "this one's not fully assembled."   
"What?" Bright snapped, also approaching. Amuro had moved down the line to the next one.   
"Neither is this one. Only the command model and one of the two combat models are finished."   
Bright growled out some frustration in the back of his throat, then turned back to the group. "All right, change of plans," he said, "there should be a Gunperry in the hanger next door. Mirai, Marker, get it prepped for launch. Frau, I want you to get the hovertank that's with it aboard. Amuro, you and I will suit up to pilot the two complete Gunmarauders. Everyone else, start loading the other three suit parts onto the Gunperry."   
Everyone was in motion instantly, heeding Bright's ordering tone and going about their tasks. Stunned speechlessness was replaced by the sounds of a well-oiled unit swiftly following the orders of its commander. By the time Bright and Amuro had changed into the Core Suits, half of the other suit parts and supplies were loaded on the Gunperry.   
"I dunno," Amuro said to Bright, "it's gonna be tough to hide a whole Gunperry back at Hades."   
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Bright responded, "for now, I just want us out of here as quickly as possible."   
"Whoa!"   
It was a new voice not far behind Bright and Amuro that had made the exclamation. Since it was a voice they didn't recognize right off, both turned to see who it was.   
Bright took a step back upon recognition. "Clarisse!?"   
Bright's sister looked ten times as speechless as any of the White Base crew upon seeing the new Mobile Suits. "I didn't know _this_ is was you guys were doing! Bright, are you guys in some kinda trouble or something?"   
"Miss Clarisse, what are you doing here?" Amuro exclaimed. "Mister Bright, what are we going to… Mister Bright?"   
Amuro and Clarisse both looked to the elder Noah sibling in confusion. It was a strange thing to see him so quiet. He had his gaze fixed on a console on a far wall, fists clenched at his sides.   
There was a single light on the console flashing, its red color burning into Bright's vision with each new pulse.   
"We leave in two minutes!" he barked out, the order bursting forth from him as a volcano's lava might burst into the air when released from its pressure. He never took his eyes off the light. "Get moving everyone!"   
"What's going-" Amuro ventured.   
"Silent alarm," Bright snapped back. He and Amuro were shortly in motion, helping to load the remainder of the supplies and leaving a mystified Clarisse to chase after them.   
"Big brother, what's-"   
"Get on the Gunperry," Bright growled at her.   
"But I don't under-"   
"Don't argue with me, Clarisse, just _do_ it!"   
She took a step back in response to her brother's obviously angry tone. She shrank back and meekly followed his instruction, scurrying off to the Gunperry and climbing aboard.   
"Mister Bright!" Kai called from the warehouse doorway. "We've got company! Two hovertanks coming up the drive!"   
A string of colorful swears issued forth from Bright the likes of which none of them had ever heard before. "Are the parts loaded?"   
"This is the last load!" Hayato called on his way past with an armload of things.   
"Gunperry, take off in thirty! Amuro!" He motioned Amuro along with him to the Gunmarauders.   
"You sure about this?" Amuro asked as they both stepped into the open and waiting Mobile Suits.   
"No point in asking me that _now_," Bright responded, thrusting his arms into the arms of the suit.   
Heart racing and breath caught in his throat, Bright forced himself calm enough to make the final turn of his wrist that would close the control connections and activate the Gunmarauder. He wanted to scream as the suit closed around him, circuits connecting and switches shutting, trapping him within the beast of war made of metal and wire. First, the legs closed, then the sequence moved up his chest and down his arms in a clatter of hinges and clamps, finally ending with the helmet of the machine closing around his face from all directions. The monitors and sensor displays in the helmet activated a moment later, giving him sight every bit as good as his own.   
It was done. He was now a part of the monster. Its body was his body. Its eyes and ears, his eyes and ears.   
Hearing his own breath rushing in his ears and echoing off the inside of the helmet, Bright started the Gunmarauder walking forward. The movement took remarkably little effort. Amuro, Bright's sensors told him, was only a few steps behind.   
"Gunmarauders, Gunperry," Bright said into the comm, "maintain radio silence until we reach Hades."   
"Roger," both Amuro and Hayato responded.   
Bright reached the doorway of the warehouse and held up his right hand to signal Amuro to a halt next to him. The two hovertanks were directly ahead in their path, pointing both their guns and their lights straight at them.   
"Bright Noah," a voice came from behind the light, "surrender and exit the Mobile Suits or face deadly force."   
Bright chose to make no response. Instead, he waved his right hand forward, then kicked in the thrusters of the Gunmarauder. He took off, sailing over the ground toward the tank on the left. He twisted around on the way and sent the leg of the Mobile Suit crashing into the lens of one of the lights. Amuro did something similar to the tank on the right. Not wasting any time, Bright brought the beam rifle to bear, aiming it point blank at the tank and firing. Under fire from a heavy machine gun, the bullets ringing off the Gunmarauder's armor, he thrustered straight into the air as the tank heated to a red-hot glow and exploded.   
The Gunperry was rumbling overhead now and new weapons fire was directed at it. A GM Mobile Suit appeared through the trees, taking aim at the departing Gunperry. Tanks were one thing, but now the Gunmarauder would get a real test.   
Bright touched down on the ground for but an instant, just long enough to kick off once again and thrust back into the air. Racing toward the GM, he drew the beam saber and activated it. The mechanics of the Gunmarauder allowed Bright to call into play the hand-to-hand combat skills he had acquired as a soldier and as the GM sensed his approach and moved to counter it, he was able to nimbly avoid the parry. Pushing off from the GM's arm, Bright brought his beam saber down in an eviscerating vertical arc, sending the energy blade crashing into the head of the other Mobile Suit. Sparks flew from the GM, forcing Bright back. He allowed himself to land back on the ground once again and fired off a shot from his rifle, aimed at the belly of the GM. The red beam split the darkness and skewered the other Mobile Suit. An instant later, it blew into several pieces, flaming and falling to the ground.   
The Gunperry had gotten far ahead, now, and bright spotted Amuro's Gunmarauder flying along with it; hopping and thrusting, hopping and thrusting. Bright turned back to the warehouse and let off a shot at it, sending the site of the Gunmarauder production to a fiery death. Wasting no time, he took off into the air and sped after the Gunperry.   
There remained four survivors of the unit that had arrived to stop the Gunmarauder theft. They were all that remained of twelve. And they could only helplessly watch as the Gunperry and the two Gunmarauders disappeared into the night horizon.   
One of the four, picking himself out of a ditch that one of the tank explosions had deposited him in, was still clutching the megaphone he had used to call for Bright's surrender.   
Blaring out his rage, Kutani Hadagawa threw the megaphone into the flaming remains of the facility. 

They took a roundabout route back to Hades, circling in on it from the opposite direction of the V project facility, hoping to throw off any tracking systems that could zero in on the Gunperry's Menovsky broadcast. It appeared they were successful since no blips were registering on Radar.   
Bright and Amuro landed a few minutes ahead of the Gunperry, lighting on the upper most plateau above the cave. The Gunperry was coming in for a landing in a clearing not far off.   
Standing there, inactive, Bright's civilized brain kicked back in and he suddenly found his hands shaking violently and bile rising in his throat at the thought of the Gunmarauder surrounding him. His mind shouted at him to get out, the same way a man trapped under falling rocks would shout at the top of his lungs. Half panicked, Bright twisted his left wrist and broke the control connections. The Mobile Suit popped open and spat him out like so much waste material. He stumbled forward on unsteady legs a few steps before collapsing to all fours, limbs shaking violently, gasping like a man who had almost drowned.   
"What have I done?" he gasped out.   
"Mister Bright?" he vaguely heard Amuro's concerned inquiry. "What happened? Were you hit?" Amuro shook Bright's shoulder, desperately trying to get his attention.   
"That was… that was a GM Mobile Suit," Bright breathed, still in a haze, "those were _Federation_ soldiers. What on Earth have I done?"   
"Shock?" Amuro mused to himself. "Oh, this isn't good." Deciding he didn't care about the consequences, Amuro pulled back a fist and threw it across Bright's face, sending the unit commander sprawling onto his back. "Get a hold of yourself, Mister Bright! The others'll be back any minute!"   
Slowly, Bright sat back up and knuckled a bit of blood away from a split lip. He shook his head as if clearing it of cotton and looked back up at Amuro. "Guess I needed that," he said around a calming sigh and slowly got to his feet.   
Amuro sighed in relief. "You okay now?"   
"Not really," stated Bright, rubbing his aching jaw, "but I guess I'll live. Suppose that finally makes us even, huh?"   
"I've still got a few more, by my count," Amuro carped.   
"Let's not get back into that."   
"Right," Amuro agreed, a nervous half smile curling the corner of his mouth for a moment before moving on to other topics. "About that Gunperry. Where are we going to hide it?"   
"We're not," Bright said, matter-of-factly, "we've gotta get rid of it. It's too big for us to try and hide out here."   
"It could still come in handy."   
Bright shook his head. "The thing is painted electric yellow, Amuro, it's not worth the risk."   
"Hey look, they're back," Amuro stated, pointing to the area below, in front of the cave. The rest of the group was trudging their way, each with armloads of supplies and parts. Clarisse was with them, still looking mystified, carrying a box of parts that someone had loaded her up with.   
Bright half sighed, half groaned, dreading what was coming next. "C'mon," he said to Amuro, "let's get these Mobile Suits under cover." He got back into the Gunmarauder, Amuro following suit, and shivered as it closed around him again. Bright forced the feeling down and moved the Mobile Suit down to the lower level and into the cave.   
Kats, Lets, and Kikka came scurrying their way, looking up at the two Gunmarauders in awe.   
"Whoa, cool!" Kats exclaimed.   
"You really think so?" Kikka asked him. "I think it's kinda ugly. Not like Gundam."   
"That's not a nice thing to say, Kikka," Lets scolded her as if he was so much the elder.   
Frau came along and gathered the children up. She shepherded them away, allowing Bright and Amuro enough space to get out of the suits again. When they did, they were greeted by Kai, Hayato, and Sayla.   
Kai took a closer look at the Mobile Suits and whistled out his amazement. "Holy cow! These Gunmarauders are certainly a sight to behold in battle."   
"You said it," Hayato agreed, "that GM never even had a chance."   
Sayla nodded as well. "I was expecting Amuro to be that good, but I never imagined you'd be that good a Mobile Suit pilot, Mister Bright."   
"I'm not," Bright stated, "with a normal Mobile Suit, I'm useless. But using a Gunmarauder is like being in a bar room brawl. Anyone with hand to hand combat experience could use it."   
Kai shrugged, a sarcastic grin playing across his face. "I dunno where you've been having bar room brawls, Mister Bright, but where I come from, they don't include beam weaponry."   
"Knock it off, Kai," Amuro put in, sensing Bright apprehension, "that isn't funny."   
"I'll say it isn't!" It was Clarisse that had spoken from close to the cave entrance. Once everyone had turned to give her their attention, she let her load fall to the ground and stalked past them up to Bright. "Bright Hathaway Noah, what the bloody _hell_ are you doing!?"   
Bright tossed it right back. "That's _my_ line!"   
"You fired on your own people! Those were Federal forces!"   
"And just why do you think I had to, huh? Why do you think they knew we were there?"   
"Wh-what do you mean?"   
"Thermal sensors!" Bright bellowed. "They count how many people enter the facility. If the numbers aren't right, the alarm sounds. Thanks to you stowing away, they knew we were there, right off. They wouldn't have been there until we were long gone if it wasn't for you! Eight Federation soldiers are _dead_, Clarisse!"   
"Why? Just what's so important that you and this rag-tag group of former crewmates of yours had to steal these new Mobile Suits?"   
"Don't change the top-"   
"Mother and I deserve to know what you're doing!"   
The elder Noah sibling turned away with an exasperated sigh. "In case you hadn't figured it out, I was trying to keep the two of you out of it!"   
"Great work!" Clarisse snapped back, sarcastically.   
"I think," Mirai interrupted before Bright could start back in on it, "that all of us need to cool off before we decide what we have to do."   
There was a long pause and everyone in the group looked at each other tensely.   
"Fine," Clarisse snapped at length, "you don't want me involved, then I'll just leave."   
"You don't get it," Bright said as prelude to a new tirade. Mirai again managed to head it off.   
"I really don't think that's possible," she explained, "the security system at the V Project facility is likely to have seen you."   
"Long story short," Bright put in, "you're sticking with us." He stalked over to the box that Clarisse had unceremoniously dropped and fished his sidearm out of it. "Someone might as well fill her in on all this. Meantime, unload the Gunperry and start assembling the other three Gunmarauders." He barked out the orders in one long string, stalking out of the cave.   
"But where are you going, Bright?" Mirai asked of his retreating back.   
"To scout the area and make sure we weren't followed!"   
"You're going _alone_!?" Kai exclaimed.   
"Yes!"   
"Wait, I'll go with-" Amuro began, but was silenced by Sayla's hand clamping down on his shoulder. She shook her head and Amuro got the message. The entire group watched Bright march off angrily, somewhat confused over what to do.   
Mirai took the inactivity as her cue and jumped into action. "Well, you heard him," she said, "let's start unloading the Gunperry."   
Kai snorted and he Hayato, Amuro, Sayla, Frau, and Marker trudged off to begin work. "Pretty hard not to have," said Kai, "but I don't think they quite heard him on Side Three."   
Mirai noticed that Clarisse had hung back and was still looking in the direction Bright had gone, fists clenched at her sides and her teeth grinding. In the depths of her being, Mirai felt a violent tug on her heart coming from the youngest Noah's direction.   
"Miss Clarisse," she ventured, "are you…?"   
"That isn't my brother," Clarisse stated, "it just can't be him, Miss Mirai." She turned back to Mirai, finally revealing the hurt in her eyes. "My big brother would never have acted like that, he wouldn't hurt a fly."   
Mirai sighed. Damn Bright for leaving her with the damage control. "Listen… Clarisse…"   
"You people! What did you turn him into? My brother is not that kind of a monster! What did you do to him?"   
"Clarisse… he's not…" 

"Bloody, bloody hell!"   
Each of Bright's words was punctuated by a dust-spreading stomp of the ground.   
"Idiot, moron, stupid dim…_ putz_ of a little sister! Just couldn't take a hint!" Blaring out some of his frustration, Bright sent a fist into the rock cliff face to his right. Ignoring the throb, he continued onward, still stomping the ground mercilessly. "She picks the worst possible thing to do, picks the worst possible way to do it, and chooses to do it at the worst possible time!" His last three words were accented by three kicks to a loose stone about the size of his head laying on the ground.   
He finally stopped and leaned against the cliff, catching his breath. He slowly slid down it, plopping into a sitting position there. He landed on a fairly noticeable stone, fished it out from in under himself, and threw it as far as he could make it fly.   
"What do I do with her?" he wondered aloud around a sigh. "I can't send her home, McAllis' people would pick her up in a second. But I can't let her fight with us, either, she would never last. Maybe I'll just have Sayla sedate her and leave her in the cave with the children."   
His hand found another stone and again tossed it as far as he could. It bounced off an outcropping of the cliff face that had once had an overhang of stone. However, a tree had toppled down, landing on it and caving in the tiny nook. 

_ "Ready or not, here I come!"_   
_ Bright's thirteen-year-old voice echoed off the Cliffside and through the air. Looking up and around, he gave the wait a few more moments, knowing his younger sister would need just a bit longer to get to her favorite hiding place. She, of course, insisted that wasn't true and Bright decided to humor her. He counted out an extra minute, then calmly strolled in the correct direction._   
_ It was their tradition. Every year, their father would wake them at three in the morning some random spring day, they would trudge off to the hidden little cave, and spend the two following nights there, camping out. On the first day, Bright and Clarisse would play hide-and-seek._   
_ This was the first time he actually felt too old to be playing it, though. He briefly wondered why a year would make that much of a difference._   
_ Bright's musing was cut short as he approached Clarisse's hiding spot. The ten-year-old was sitting against the cliff face near her favorite little nook, knees to chest and whimpering pathetically._   
_ Alarmed, Bright rushed up to her and knelt down in front of her._   
_ "Clar, what's wrong? Did you hurt yourself?"_   
_ Looking up at Bright and wiping her nose on the back of her hand, she shook her head back and forth once, slowly._   
_ "Then, what is it? What's wrong?"_   
_ Clarisse pointed to her favorite hiding nook. "It got smaller, I can't hide in there."_   
_ Bright blinked. "That's all?" he asked her. "You're being silly, short stuff. You got bigger, the hiding spot didn't get smaller."_   
_ "But you don't look smaller."_   
_ "That's because I got… I got bigger, too."_   
_ Clarisse buried her head in her arms and started bawling anew. "I don't wanna be bigger. I wanna get into my hiding spot."_   
_ He was at a loss. Obviously, reason wasn't going to get Clarisse to calm down. So, obviously, he had to do something irrational. But what? Bright acted on the first thing that came to mind and picked up a stone about the size of his fist. He pounded it against the back wall of Clarisse's hiding place._   
_ "We'll make it bigger, then," he said, between poundings, "then you can get into it again."_

His left hand had found a stone and, sitting against the cliff face, he absently pounded it on the ground over and over. After a few moments, as absently as he had started the repetitive motion, he stopped it and dropped the stone.   
The Sun was starting to come up in the East and light burned into Bright's vision. He put his hand up to block it and started. His left hand was still covered in the Core Suit control connections glove, a network of sensors ringing his fingers and covering his hand like veins. Examining it in the faint light, he realized he hadn't taken off the Core Suit, that last vestige that connected him to that monster of a Mobile Suit.   
Angry anew, he picked up the stone again and threw it full force at the tree that had caved in the hiding place. 

The cave was buzzing with activity when Bright returned several hours later. Toward the back, Amuro, Kai, and Sayla were just finishing assembly of the last two Gunmarauders. Mirai had sent Hayato along with the second combat model to scuttle the stolen Gunperry far from their location. He would return in the Mobile Suit, familiarizing himself with how the machine ran. Frau and the children were positioned on the ledge above the cave keeping watch. Finally, not far from the other two Gunmarauders, Marker and Clarisse were fiddling with Bright and Amuro's Gunmarauders.   
Bright was about to approach the last two when Mirai intercepted him.   
"If you're quite finished yelling at your sister, you might want to know she seems to be quite good with radios. She and Marker are changing the frequencies in the Mobile Suits."   
"I don't want her wearing it."   
She blinked at him. "Where in the world did that come from?"   
"It's nothing. I just don't want her piloting any of the Mobile Suits."   
"Is there something-?"   
"Everything's fine. Don't worry about it."   
"But…" Even as she tried once more to press the issue, Bright wandered over to Clarisse and Marker. "You don't look like everything's fine," she mumbled.   
"Clarisse," Bright said as he approached, using his annoyed commander voice. Both Clarisse and Marker halted their work and looked up at him.   
"Oh, what do you want now?" Clarisse responded in kind.   
"Outside," Bright commanded, then turned on his heel and walked out of the cave.   
"Lucky me," Clarisse mumbled, handing the small screwdriver she had been using to Marker and following after Bright. She caught up with him just out of earshot of the cave. "Okay, so what's got the bug up your butt this time?"   
Bright turned back to her with that look on his face. "Listen, Clar, this isn't a game."   
"You think I haven't figured that out yet?"   
"I'm not done," Bright snapped, heading off Clarisse's tirade, "General McAllis is going to attack Side Six. We're going against our own Joint Chiefs on this one and millions of people are counting on us and us alone. That leaves no room to screw up and it means that you do exactly what I say, when I say it from now on. Do you understand me?"   
"Yes," she said, suppressing a sigh, "I understand, perfectly."   
Bright sighed as well, glad that that little fiasco was over with. He let himself relax out of his commander guise and grasped one of his sister's hands. "Look, this isn't going to be easy. I just don't want to see you get hurt or killed, that all."   
Clarisse's angry glare dissolved as her eyes met his and gave way to desperately suppressed tears. She latched on to Bright in a desperate hug and buried her face in his shoulder. "Where did you go? I've been so scared for you, big brother. I miss you."   
"Your hiding place was caved in."   
"It was like that when dad and I came here last spring without you."   
"There's nothing I can do to fix it this time, is there?"   
"Just let it go. It doesn't matter any more."   
"Mister Bright!" Marker called from the mouth of the cave. His tone sounded urgent and he was waving an arm above his head. "I think you should hear this, sir! They're talking about us!"   
Bright and Clarisse afforded themselves a glance at each other, then took off back to the cave. There, the whole group, minus the still returning Hayato, was gathered around the monitor unit that had managed to steal with the rest of their supplies. The clean shaven face of General McAllis filled the screen.   
"We have positively identified these terrorists as the former command crew of the destroyed battleship White Base, led by former commander thereof Lieutenant Bright Noah. This list of names also includes Amuro Ray, Sayla Mass, and a host of others. My secretary has copies of this list available to you." He indicated the group of press corps members gathered in front of him. "I'm told we have time for one question."   
There was a clamor from the press corps and it finally died down when McAllis pointed to one reporter in particular.   
"General McAllis, is there any truth to speculation of a possible terrorist threat emanating from Side Six?"   
McAllis paused, choosing his words carefully. "While it isn't my job to automatically speculate on obvious possibilities, I can say that we are investigating the strong ties to Side Six that White Base crew member Mirai Yashima has. Rest assured, we are investigating every lead."   
There was a new clamor as McAllis gathered up his notes and left. Several reporters shouted questions after him and his staffers. The camera followed him as he exited.   
"Take a good look, everyone," ordered Bright, "that's the face of our enemy."   
"One thing bothers me," said Sayla, "the plans for Ophiucus didn't mention anything about a propaganda campaign."   
"He must have seen his chance," said Mirai, "with my ties to Cameron, he can make it look like we're acting on behalf of Side Six. It'll make it easier for him to start a new war. Maybe me getting involved was a bad idea."   
"It's no use worrying about that, Mirai," stated Amuro, "none of us could have seen it coming. I just can't believe anyone would buy that garbage. Are people really that paranoid?"   
"Well, we _did_ just finish a war, after all," Frau thought to point out.   
Bright grunted in agreement, crossing his arms over his chest, thoughtfully. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's a whole new ball game," he said, "the plans for Ophiucus we managed to get our hands on have just been thrown out the window."   
"Meaning we don't know how McAllis is going to move next," Mirai elaborated.   
"Right," said Bright, "we need to get some reliable information."   
"Well, that's all well and good to say," groused Kai, "but does anyone have any bright ideas how to go about it?"   
"I could try to contact Cameron," Mirai suggested, "as a Side Six DA, he might have heard something."   
"How can I put this delicately?" Clarisse chimed in. "That would be grade A stupid. We have to figure they're keeping an eye on him, Miss Mirai. He is the tie to Side Six that McAllis mentioned. If they're expecting us to contact him, they might even be ready to track us back here."   
The whole group looked at her, mouths agape.   
"What? Well, am I a part of this group, or not?"   
"Yes," stated Bright before anyone else could respond, "anyway, I doubt they'd let the DA of Side Six know their battle plans. We need to talk to someone Earthside." He stepped over to the hovertank nearby which was powering the monitor and climbed inside. Sitting in a seat, he began fiddling with the buttons and dials of the radio system.   
"What are you doing?" Amuro asked, peering into the tank.   
"I'm making a call to my roommate from the academy," Bright stated, simply.   
"Mister Bright, have you lost it?" Amuro asked, wide-eyed with distress. "They'll track the signal!"   
None the less, Bright continued composing his message. "If they can track us by hacking into Jean Carnot's system, they _deserve_ to catch us."   
Kai joined Amuro at the hatch. "You sure you can trust this guy?"   
"Jean and I had an understanding; I got him through tactics and strategy, he got me through hand-to-hand. You can learn a lot about a guy by fighting him."   
Finding that Bright wasn't going to be swayed, Amuro and Kai looked to each other, shrugged, and wandered off.   
"Even if he is a lunatic Frenchman," Bright mumbled. 

********* 

Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam: The White Base Rebellion... 

"You have one chance to clean up this mess, Mister Hadagawa," McAllis stated, "I want Bright Noah. I don't care if it's dead or alive."   
***   
At length, Bright got to his feet, hands clenched into fists as his sides. "Enough of this," he said, "no more, no more of them."   
***   
"We're not going to get anywhere just running." Bright pulled the disk out of his shirt pocket and handed it to Mirai. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but we have to split up. Get to the tank as quickly as possible. I'll keep 'em off your tail."   
"You're crazy! They'll catch you!"   
He shook his head. "I know their search patterns, remember? I'll avoid them. Mirai, that disk is more important than either of us right now. We have to get it back to Hades."   
***   
Somewhere, in the midst of the brawl, a shot rang out and Bright felt something hot burrow into his left shoulder in an instant of blinding pain. He staggered backward, feeling blood ooze out of the fresh wound under his hand, and lost his footing. Hadagawa was on him an instant later, hauling Bright back to his feel by his shirt.   
"Where's the disk?" Hadagawa demanded.   
***   
Kai paused on one station that was broadcasting news and listened. "Hey!" he chimed. "The media's calling us the Bright Brigade. Kinda like the ring of that."   
"Sure, I like the way it sounds," Amuro stated from his place near the fire where he was fiddling with a piece of equipment from his Gunmarauder, "but I'm not too sure I like the implication."   
***   
"You were in the war, Marker," Clarisse said, "did you ever have to… you know… kill anyone?"   
"Not me personally," he responded, "they try to keep tech-heads like me out of the direct line of fire. But I read the Radar that pointed the ship's guns."   
"You just told them where to shoot, then. You never had to pull the trigger."   
"Still," Marker added, "Oscar and I were the ones who made the decisions for what could be fired at and what couldn't. Anything I reported would become an instant target."   
***   
Hadagawa's gun cocked and Bright could find no way to stop him. There was only one thing left. Squeezing his eyes closed in readiness, Bright let loose the four words that simply would not be contained as he died. After that, nothing else mattered.   
"Mirai, I love you!"   
And a gunshot echoed through the area.   
***   
Chapter three: Intelligence Mission! Who will survive?   



	4. Chapter Three: Intelligence Mission

Mobile Suit Gundam: The White Base Rebellion   
by Berzerker_prime

Chapter three: Intelligence Mission

June 9th UC 0080   
Jaburo 

Hadagawa had failed him. He had trained the young officer himself and he had failed him so completely and utterly.   
McAllis had sent Hadagawa to collect Bright Noah and his group of play-soldiers. It should have been a simple task, indeed it should have been below anyone McAllis had personally trained. But the result made him far less than ecstatic; not only had Hadagawa failed to take the White Base crew, he had failed to keep them from _stealing the Gunmarauders_!   
He would have preferred it if Noah had at least outsmarted Hadagawa using some of those famous unorthodox tactics he had shown as commander of White Base. Instead, Noah had simply capitalized on Hadagawa's unforgivably ignorant mistakes. McAllis himself had had to step in and limit the enemy's movements with propaganda. Not a subtle tactic, but effective.   
Hadagawa was standing in McAllis' office now, nursing the stinging cheek that the General had backhanded, full-force. There was no need for McAllis to say anything, for Hadagawa knew how disappointed he was.   
"You have one chance to clean up this mess, Mister Hadagawa," McAllis stated, "I want Bright Noah. I don't care if it's dead or alive. I want him out of sight, out of mind. Is there any part of this order you do not understand, Lieutenant?"   
"No, sir."   
"Good. Now leave."   
"Sir!" Hadagawa saluted, smartly, then scurried out of the room.   
Once Hadagawa was gone, McAllis sat back down in the chair behind his desk to address the growing pile of paperwork there. Such a stack of backlog was painfully unbecoming an officer. He took the first folder in hand and started paging through it.   
It was a new program put forth by one Colonel Bosque Ohm.   
Its title was "Titans." 

Bright was startled awake in the dark of the night by the blaring of the hovertank's radio. He had fallen asleep in the seat, waiting for Carnot's response and now the indicator was bleating repeatedly, crying out for Bright's attention. He called up the message and read it. It contained both his message to Carnot, "Bacchus loves wine, women, and song," and Carnot's response, "and Bacchus knows where to find it."   
Carnot had agreed to meet him. It was a step in the right direction, anyway. But Kai's question remained in Bright's mind. Yes, Bright had learned a lot about Jean Carnot at the academy, but the most persistent fact was that you could never predict what he would do. Carnot was a lunatic and damn proud of it.   
Bright knew the time and the place. And he had to figure that Carnot was not oblivious to what was happening.   
Time to roll the dice.   
Wasting no time, Bright decided to stick to his decision and climbed out of the hovertank. Tucked into the corners of the cave, the rest of the group was curled up into sleeping little balls of Human being.   
"Everybody up!" he shouted, letting the call echo off the walls of the cave.   
Reactions ranged. Sayla, Marker, and Mirai managed to become lucid quite quickly and Hayato zipped in from his post at watch outside. Amuro and Frau slowly sat up, blinking back sleep. Kai turned over, mumbling something about "five more minutes, mommy." Clarisse didn't move but to grope the dark for the nearby Haro and launch it at Bright who side stepped the robot-turned-projectile easily.   
"I'll count to three," Bright elaborated, trying to get the last two sleepers to come to. It worked and the whole bleary-eyed group was now paying apt attention. "I just got a response to my message," Bright explained, "I meet with Carnot in three hours. If I'm not back in six… don't come after me."   
Clarisse shot to her feet. "What the hell do you mean by that?"   
"Can't you fill in the blanks?" Kai quipped. "Our dear Mister Bright isn't fully convinced he'll make it back. Isn't that it?"   
It was Mirai's turn to stand in obvious annoyance. "What do you mean by that?" she exclaimed, echoing Clarisse's sentiments.   
Bright shrugged. "Much as I hate to give in to Kai's pessimism, he hit it on the nose. If I'm not back in six hours, you are absolutely _not_ to come after me. We don't need anyone else getting caught if this turns out to be a lemon of a situation."   
Clarisse sat back down on the ground, arms crossed and with a sour look on her face, looking very much her brother's sister. "Or if you get killed. Why don't you just come out and say it, already?"   
"Mister Bright, I thought you said you could trust Carnot," Amuro put in, "I don't get it."   
"Him, yes. The rest of the place, no."   
"Sounds to me like you could benefit from someone watching your back," stated Sayla, "I think someone should go with you."   
"I second that," Mirai agreed, immediately.   
"I'm trying to minimize the risk," Bright defended his position.   
"Yeah, but we really need that information," said Kai, "you don't minimize anyone's risk if you don't make it back with reliable intelligence."   
"Do you realize what I could say to that?" Bright mumbled, glaring at Kai.   
"Let's put it to a vote, then," Mirai called before Bright could object further, "all for?"   
"Aye," said the whole group in unison.   
"All opposed?"   
"Nay!" Bright exclaimed.   
"Ayes have it," stated Clarisse, "you'll do it our way."   
"Let's get set, everyone," Mirai called everyone to action. Obediently, everyone got up and started to organize what needed to be organized.   
Still standing there in the cave, dumbfounded and running a hand through his hair, Bright sighed loudly.   
"How in the world did _that_ happen?" 

Was he going soft? If he was, he picked a really lousy time to do it. He should never have given them that inch.   
Arms crossed over his chest unhappily, Bright stewed at the hovertank's tactical station as they traveled along. This situation was most definitely not what he had envisioned when he had decided to meet Carnot. This was dangerous and now the risks were huge, astronomical.   
"All right," he finally said to his two companions, "I understand it when you say someone should watch my back at the rendezvous. And I can understand that someone has to be along to keep watch at the tank. But I don't understand why it has to be you two."   
At helm and communications respectively, Mirai and Clarisse both shot him annoyed looks.   
"Sounds to me like he wants nothing to do with us, Mirai," Clarisse said in mock indignance.   
"Maybe he's concerned we can't hold our own," Mirai agreed in kind.   
"That's got nothing to do with it," Bright said, feeling his face grow warm.   
Clarisse grinned and poked him in the side. "He's blushing again."   
"I am not."   
"Do I have to turn this tank around?" Mirai put in. "Anyway, in all honesty, Bright, you need a person to helm the tank and someone with radio expertise. We're the best two for the job."   
"That's another thing," stated Bright, "Clar, where did you learn so much about radio equipment, anyway?"   
Clarisse shifted uncomfortably and turned back to her station. She fiddled absently with some of the controls, trying to look busy. "Oh, here and there. You know, around."   
Bright studied her reaction for a moment before pressing further. "Clarisse, did father teach you?"   
Clarisse stopped playing with the buttons and dials and looked down at her lap. "Yeah," she said.   
He sighed inwardly, occupying himself with his own set of controls. "Okay."   
The rest of the trip passed in relative silence. Mirai sensed some unresolved issue between then, sensed they were both trying to downplay it, and decided not to get in the middle. Somehow, she knew Bright would hate that even more.   
"Okay, Mirai, we're a kilometer from the town," Bright stated, consulting his display, "bring us to a stop."   
"Right," Mirai acknowledged, cutting the engines. The tank came to a jolt of a stop and set down with a thud.   
"Clarisse, anything on the air?"   
The younger Noah donned the set of headphones and scanned through the entire spectrum of radio frequencies. "Nothing but static," she said, "looks like we're in the clear."   
"Good. Mirai and I will continue on foot to the rendezvous with Carnot. Clarisse, I want you to stay here, keep and eye on things, and camouflage the tank a bit if you can. Don't contact us by radio unless you absolutely have to." Bright took two sidearms out from under the seat. He handed one to Mirai and put the other in his shoulder holster, covered by his over shirt.   
"Why does Mirai get to go with you?" Clarisse asked by way of protest.   
Climbing out of the hatch, Bright paused and looked back at his sister, wearing his stern commander face.   
"Right, right," Clarisse sighed, slouching down in her seat.   
"If we're not back in two hours, go back to the cave," Bright instructed.   
"Gotcha."   
"I mean it."   
"I said I gotcha."   
"Good girl. Don't ever change, little sister."   
"Get going, you big spoil sport."   
Bright did and he and Mirai began their kilometer trek through the woods toward town. In the tank, Clarisse watched them disappear into the dark on the monitor. "Big brother," she said unhappily, "if you don't come back, I swear I'll kill you." 

He was a party-lover, bar-hopper, and a less-than-successful ladies' man. As many a pilot often are, he was boisterous, a bit of a braggart. He wasn't the most handsome man on the planet, but he wasn't bad-looking either.   
Seated at the bar, flirting with a young lady at the other end with his eyes and polishing off his second shot of whiskey, he let the music of the jazz band on stage wash through his brain in a pleasant fog.   
This Federation pilot, with his unruly head of dark blonde hair and partially unzipped uniform, was Jean Carnot.   
He hadn't been to the Jazz Lady bar in almost a year. The war had kept him away, regrettably. In all his bar-hopping, he hadn't found a better spot for good music and good hooch.   
And dammit, how that stuck-up Brit of a former roommate of his was ruining the ambience for him. He had to admit, his curiosity was piqued. Bright Noah was many things, but not a terrorist or a traitor. At least, not before the war. Carnot wanted to find out either what he had gotten into or what finally pushed the guy over the edge.   
He had arrived at the Jazz Lady a half hour before the meeting time, hoping to get a chance to make sure the joint was still standing and hopping. Carnot up-ended his shot glass next to the first on the bar and signaled the barkeep for a third. He was just fishing the money out of his pocket when a hand put a few bills on the bar in front of him. Carnot looked up and found himself looking into that cocky cockney face of his former roommate.   
"Get me a bottle of whatever beer you've got in season," Bright told the barkeep.   
"Comin' up," said the barkeep, then indicated Mirai behind him, "and for the lady?"   
"Uh, same," he responded, recovering from the unexpected inquiry.   
"So," Carnot ventured, "sounds like you had an interesting war, Cockney."   
"You have no idea, Frenchy," Bright responded, retrieving the two beers, handing one to Mirai, and nodding in the direction of a table by the wall.   
As they headed over, Mirai nudged Bright, looking at her bottle with a somewhat perturbed look. "I'm not real big on beer," she whispered.   
"You don't have to drink it, just look like you are."   
"That's easy to _say_…"   
They all sat down at the little round table, Bright pulling out a chair for Mirai in the process to which Carnot cocked an eyebrow.   
"You _did_ have an interesting war," Carnot said, "I don't believe I've had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of your date, Bright."   
Bright was thankful for the dark lighting as that warm feeling filled his face again. It was happening all too often. "Jean Carnot, Mirai Yashima."   
"Oh, so you're the Side Six babe," Carnot said, reaching across the table and taking up her hand, kissing it, "you belong in the heavens, because the stars themselves could never outshine you, mademoiselle."   
Bright sighed and took a particularly long pull from his bottle.   
"So Cockney," Carnot segued, "somehow, I doubt you came all the way out here on a social call."   
Bright nodded. "I don't know how much you've heard lately, but-"   
"You forget who you're talking to. Yeah, I know all about Ophiucus. I stumbled across it about a month ago."   
"Then why aren't you doing anything?" Bright asked, almost livid.   
Carnot calmly took a swig of his drink. "What makes you think I'm not? Damn, Bright, thought you were better at strategy than that."   
"Huh?"   
"You and your people have been poking around in this for three, almost four days. I'm working with people who have known about this for four months. We were trying to clean it up quietly, but you came along and really flummoxed everything up."   
"You mean, stealing the Gunmarauders?" Mirai asked.   
Carnot smirked. "Got it in one, mademoiselle. Pretty and smart. I like that."   
"So you're saying you can't give us anything on McAllis' movements?" Bright pressed on.   
"Aux contraire, mon ami," Carnot answered, setting a disk on the table, "I've been ordered to give you this. It's all the info we've got on McAllis' new attack plans for Side Six. You had us scrambling for a while, but it turns out that now that you're working outside the system, you're the only ones free to move without danger of being discovered. That's why McAllis is so obsessed with you. You're the best ones to head him off before he can get off Earth and launch the attack."   
Bright held up the disk as if he could read the data directly. "Thanks Jean. I really owe you-" He stopped, his eyes locked on the disk as if he was looking through it rather than at it. He shifted slightly.   
"What is it?" Mirai asked.   
"There's a guy at the table behind me. He was with Hadagawa when he came to the farm. We've been followed."   
"But how'd they follow you?" Carnot asked, lowering his voice.   
"I don't think they did," stated Mirai, somewhat uncertainly.   
"How do you know that?"   
"I'm not really sure."   
Bright had learned long ago that Mirai's hunches were almost never unfounded. Sure, maybe they seemed to come out of nowhere, but they were almost always right. He put the disk away in his inside shirt pocket and calmly took another swig of his drink.   
"He hasn't tried to nab us, yet," he stated, "which means he's here to watch and follow us."   
"He must be trying to track down your camp," Carnot reasoned, "so they couldn't have followed you guys, they must have followed me. But I'm not sure how they'd know to."   
"They must have intercepted our messages," Bright theorized.   
"Off _my_ system? C'mon!"   
"It's the only way they could have known, Jean." Bright polished off the last of his beer. "Bugger. It means they deserve to catch us. But we might have just enough room to move. Let's go."   
As calmly as was possible, the three co-conspirators stood, leaving their drinks, and made their way out of the Jazz Lady. Bright led the way down the street toward the opposite end of town they had come from and around a corner. As expected, Hadagawa's assistant followed them.   
Once out of sight, they broke into a run down the block and turned the corner again. The backside of the Jazz Lady was a narrow alley, lit only by a single light at one end. It might have made a good hiding place, but Bright wasn't about to risk their not moving.   
"We'll double back and circle around outside of town," he said.   
"How do you know they're not waiting for us out there?" Carnot asked as they rounded the third corner.   
"I don't," Bright answered, "but-"   
He was suddenly cut off as Carnot, running slightly ahead of him around the corner, came to a sudden halt with a thud. He had run headlong into Hadagawa's assistant. Before the three of them could react and go the other way, there was a glint of light on metal followed by the sickening sound of a knife cutting into flesh. Carnot jerked, his eyes going wide, and the other soldier planted a foot in his chest and kicked him back into Bright. Hadagawa's assistant tossed aside the blood-covered knife in favor of his gun, but Bright managed to be faster and fired off a shot, landing his mark in the middle of the other soldier's forehead. Everything stopped for a moment as both Carnot and Hadagawa's assistant hit the ground in two distinct thuds.   
In one swift move, Bright holstered his sidearm and turned Carnot over on his back to inspect the stab wound in the Frenchman's belly. Mirai joined him, but kept a close watch on what was going on around them.   
Carnot was hemorrhaging blood and was already turning an unhealthy shade of grey. Face twisted up in pain, he managed to gather enough breath to speak. "Damn, always figured it'd be some lucky Zeon that got me."   
"Knock it off, Jean, we'll get you help. Just don't move around," Bright ordered.   
"Who are you kidding, Cockney? You can't take me anywhere you won't be arrested." He grimaced in pain. "The fate of Side Six is in your hands. Hack my computer system and download the information there. The code word is 'Isabelle.'"   
Bright couldn't help but crack a sad half-smile. "So, you never got over her?"   
"You never get over your first love. Remember not to drop… your elbow."   
Carnot went limp, his head lolling back. Bright held a hand over his mouth for a moment, hoping to feel a breath, but finding his prayers unanswered. He paused for a moment more, then closed Carnot's eyes.   
"Bright, we have to go," Mirai exclaimed, "there was nothing you could do."   
At length, Bright got to his feet, hands clenched into fists as his sides. "Enough of this," he said, "no more, no more of them."   
"Bright, c'mon!" Mirai half-shouted, grabbing one of Bright's fists and dragging him into action. That snapped him out of his trance and very quickly they were making a bee-line for the edge of town.   
Once having come to the town limits and breaking into the small ring of forest there, Bright activated his comm as they ran along. "Firefly! Firefly! Mayday!"   
Clarisse's voice came through from the other end an instant later. "What happened!?" she demanded.   
"I'll fill you in later," Bright responded, "just come around to one-three-six-two-eight and do it in five."   
"But I don't know how to make this thing…" Her voice was lost to static, mid-sentence, and Bright desperately toggled his comm over and over.   
"Damn, they're jamming all frequencies," he told Mirai, "we're on our own."   
Having gone off the beaten path, the two of them were crashing through bushes and branches, half blindly. It was starting to get light out as the Sun began coming up, the grey light only hindering their efforts to remain unseen.   
Bright and Mirai crashed through a wall of greenery and skidded to a halt just short of the edge of a steep gradient, most of it rock and talus. Almost instantly, Bright went to the ground and pulled Mirai down with him. He covered her mouth and pointed to the clearing below where no less than half a dozen Federation soldiers were fanned out, searching. Mirai nodded her understanding and they both backed up through the greenery as silently as possible.   
"Wrong way," Bright whispered.   
"No kidding," Mirai responded.   
"We're not going to get anywhere just running." He pulled the disk out of his shirt pocket and handed it to Mirai. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but we have to split up. Get to the tank as quickly as possible. I'll keep 'em off your tail."   
"You're crazy! They'll catch you!"   
He shook his head. "I know their search patterns, remember? I'll avoid them. Mirai, that disk is more important than either of us right now. We have to get it back to Hades."   
"Carnot already died for this. Do you plan on it, too?"   
"Two lives versus two billion. We have no choice."   
Mirai looked at him, not caring that immense fear was showing in her eyes. She found that fear reflected back at her in his, felt the massive pull on his soul, almost heard him screaming at himself not to…   
… not to leave her alone, in danger.   
At that moment, she knew that he would choose her over the entire world if he could. But Bright was a soldier. It was just as impossible for him to ignore an attempted attack on civilians as it was for him to breathe under water.   
If Bright could make that sacrifice, so could she.   
At length, she forced herself to nod in agreement with him, gripping the disk as if it was now the most important thing in the universe. With an understanding gaze and no further words, they parted ways. As soon as Bright had "accidentally" crossed paths with one of the search party, she took off in a mad dash for Clarisse's location.   
Mirai ran fast enough that she made it back to the hovertank in little more than five minutes. There, Clarisse hopped out and met her urgently.   
"What happened? Where's my brother?"   
"Buying me time to get back here," Mirai responded, out of breath and holding up the disk, "listen, can you transmit this back to the others?"   
"Ye-yeah, we're outside of the jamming range but-"   
"Then do it. I'm going back for Bright."   
"You'll need help. Just wait one moment while I send this and I'll come with you." 

Bright, meanwhile, was hunched over to keep his balance on a high tree branch, silently watching three soldiers below him, still searching in the direction they thought he had gone. He heart was racing and he could feel his blood rushing in his ears with a vicious pulsing. None the less, he forced his breathing silent.   
He needed a way to get the soldiers to go elsewhere before he lost his balance. He moved his hand around the trunk of the tree to get a better grip and found the ragged edge of a squirrel hole. He felt a few round objects hidden inside and pulled them out. He found that he had three fairly sizable hickory nuts, outer shell and all, in his hand and decided he could use them. Judging the first one's weight carefully, he threw it through a gap in the tree's branches and let it sail as far as it would go. The nut crashed into a patch of bushes, making considerable noise.   
The three soldiers looked to the sound, suspicious of the rustle and Bright tossed another hickory nut in the same general direction.   
"Think he's over there?" one of the soldiers asked his companions.   
Hoping to convince them, Bright launched his final hickory nut in that direction.   
"Let's check it out," one of the other soldiers said, and all three jogged off that way.   
Bright sighed in relief when they were out of range. He climbed down from the tree and made off in the opposite direction.   
It was getting lighter out and orange was beginning to show on the Eastern horizon. The sunrise cast an eerie glow to the rock formation that Bright now came across. The strange light made it hard to gauge depth and size, but he knew that the key was to keep moving. The best way was straight over one of the formations, so he began to climb.   
His reward at the top, however, was a sudden heel to the face, sending him reeling backward through the air and back to the ground below. His attacker slid down the talus slope after him as he picked himself off the ground.   
For an instant before a fist was launched into his stomach and a second kick to his head, Bright recognized the face of Kutani Hadagawa. A moment later, he heard the click of a gun.   
"Get up," Hadagawa ordered.   
And Bright obliged, pushing off from the ground and launching himself into a tackle, knocking Hadagawa's gun away. They struggled for several moments, throwing punches and fighting as dirty as any pair of soldiers fighting in the most heated of battles.   
Somewhere, in the midst of the brawl, a shot rang out and Bright felt something hot burrow into his left shoulder in an instant of blinding pain. He staggered backward, feeling blood ooze out of the fresh wound under his hand, and lost his footing. Hadagawa was on him an instant later, hauling Bright back to his feet by his shirt.   
"Where's the disk?" Hadagawa demanded.   
"I don't know what you're talking about," Bright responded, teeth clenched in pain.   
Hadagawa launched a knee into Bright's stomach. "Don't _toy_ with me, Noah! Where's the disk?"   
Bright decided to attempt a bluff. "Destroyed by that idiot assistant of yours when he killed Carnot."   
Looking at him suspiciously, Hadagawa lifted Bright further off the ground and closer to his face. "You're lying."   
"I know I heard it over here. He must be close."   
Forgetting the first rule in any fight, Hadagawa took his eyes off Bright in favor of looking to the new voice that had just rounded the corner. Bright had recognized it as Mirai and instead of looking to confirm, took his chance and threw a fist across Hadagawa's face, not knowing until the last moment if his arm would work or not. He reached into his holster for his sidearm, but found that he had lost it during the fight.   
Hadagawa backpedaled at the sudden fist, letting go of Bright. Bright backpedaled as well, still holding his shoulder, and joined not only Mirai but Clarisse as well. Before there was any chance for anyone to say anything, Hadagawa recovered and aimed his gun in their general direction.   
Bright's instinct to launch himself at Hadagawa was suddenly subject to a peculiar override. Instead, he spun on the ball of his foot and pushed Mirai and Clarisse to the ground as Hadagawa's gun spat forth another lethal shot of sound. Bright's body realized it before he did, but he wasn't too far behind in finding that behind Mirai and Clarisse there had not been ground, but a very steep, very tall incline. By the time he was able to assess the situation, Mirai was dangling from the grasp of his left arm, Clarisse from his right, his wounded shoulder screaming in white hot pain.   
Hadagawa's boot mercilessly came down on Bright's back, causing the first sound of agony to escape Bright's mouth.   
"I'll ask you one more time," said Hadagawa, "where's the disk?"   
Bright turned his head as far as he could manage and gave Hadagawa a lethal glare. "Go to hell," he responded.   
"Perhaps," growled Hadagawa, "but you three will be going well ahead of me." He aimed his gun directly at Bright's head, foot still firmly planted in his quarry's back   
_No!_ Bright's mind screamed at him. _You can't let him kill them with you!_   
At very nearly the same moment, he heard Mirai shout his name, desperately. But it didn't seem as though he heard it in his ears. Rather, it seemed to go directly to his mind.   
Hadagawa's gun cocked and Bright could find no way to stop him. There was only one thing left. Squeezing his eyes closed in readiness, Bright let loose the four words that simply would not be contained as he died. After that, nothing else mattered.   
"Mirai, I love you!"   
And a gunshot echoed through the area.   
Silence permeated the area for several moments and it was nearly a minute later that Bright realized he was still alive.   
"Bright! Bright!" Mirai shouted.   
Slowly, he opened his eyes. Mirai and Clarisse were still dangling from his grasp. His sister was zombie-like, holding his gun, aiming it toward the now unoccupied space above him. Feeling blood dripping down his left arm and his vision beginning to blur, instinct took over and by sheer force of will, Bright managed to haul Mirai and Clarisse back to where they could climb up once again. After they were safely back up to the top, Bright found himself staggering to his feet and taking a few unsure steps away from the slope edge. He came across Hadagawa's lifeless body, a bullet hole square in the bottom of his jaw. He looked back at Clarisse and Mirai for a moment.   
"That was never supposed to happen," he said, not bothering to say who he was talking to.   
The effects of Bright's blood loss finally won out and he tumbled face first to the ground, losing consciousness.   
Mirai scrambled over to him, never fully getting to her feet. She turned him over onto his back like a rag doll and opened his shirt to get a look at the shoulder wound. Bright was losing blood fast and he was already beginning to shiver with shock and trauma. Mirai desperately turned back to Clarisse for help.   
"We've got to get him back to Hades so Sayla can help him!"   
Bright's sister, meanwhile, was literally prying the fingers of her right hand off of Bright's gun. The weapon clattered to the ground.   
"That… that man was going to… I just… it just went off!"   
"Clarisse!" Mirai shouted. "Your brother needs our help, c'mon!"   
Clarisse blinked and was over to help Mirai a moment later. Together, they hauled Bright up and began pulling his limp, prone form through the woods and back to the hovertank. 

_He loved that old swing._   
_ Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. It seemed as though the motion, the sequence, would continue on forever, never ending. The oak tree it dangled from would exist forever. The nylon ropes would exist forever. The plank of wood that made its seat would exist forever. The swing would exist forever._   
_ The motion would exist forever._   
_ Only how high he went would vary. It would vary according to his will alone. And he willed that the swing would go higher._   
_ "Higher, papa!" he shouted. "Higher!"_   
_ "You have to kick harder, then," his father replied, adding a bit more force to his already powerful push from behind._   
_ "Higher!" he exclaimed once again, redoubling the effort of his own kick._   
_ He was sailing forward, feet kicked out in front when his father appeared in his path. He was in free fall with no way to stop, despite the sudden change in will he had._   
_ His father shattered like glass under his feet. Even more astonishing, the shattering didn't stop there. It continued out, breaking apart the tree, the ropes, the wooden seat, the swing, and even the motion. Nothing of what seemed so important existed any longer._   
_ Nothing existed except his reflection, staring back at him with eyes so cold, so distant._   
_ So old. When had he gotten so old?_   
_ As if to make certain the reflection was real, he reached out to grab it. It grabbed him first, however, a hard, vicious hand digging fingers into his shoulder without mercy and tearing._   
_ He backed away in panic, leaving a layer of himself behind, flesh ripped off of him the entire length of his arm._   
_ There was no blood, no pain; just a panic that encompassed his whole being. He looked to where his arm should have been and found instead the blocky, white mechanisms the comprised the hand and arm of a Mobile Suit._   
_ An endless stream of wires and circuits sprang forth from it. They jumped and writhed, and surrounded him, tightening, tightening…_

Bright awoke with a start, shooting up into a sitting position. Instantly, he was accosted by waves of pain and nausea which forced him to lay back down again. He closed his eyes tightly to the stabbing sensation he felt in his shoulder.   
"Take it easy, you'll reopen the wound," commanded a voice next to him, accompanying a hand on his other shoulder.   
Cautiously, Bright opened his eyes to see who it was that was hovering over him. He forced his eyes, disobedient as they were, to focus on the face floating there.   
"Sayla?"   
"Welcome back," she responded, replacing the blanket he had thrown back, "you gave us quite a scare for a while."   
"Where…?"   
"Back at the cave, safe and sound. You've been unconscious for a little over twelve hours." She turned her back to him and messed with a bowl full of water. "You lost some blood and you've still got a bit of a fever," she explained as he slowly levered himself into a sitting position, "so I don't want you to…" she trailed off as she turned back to him, wearing an exasperated expression and holding a wet washcloth, "… move around too much."   
"Mirai and Clarisse. Where are they? Are they all right?"   
"They're both just fine. They made it back with the data splendidly. Your sister's a little shaken up, though."   
"I need to see them," Bright stated, pushing the blanket back and trying to get up. He winced under the movement and sat back down again.   
"Careful!" Sayla exclaimed. "You'll make it worse." She pushed him back into a laying position and placed the wet washcloth on his forehead. "Just relax for a while. We'll handle things. This is no infirmary and I'm no Sonmalo."   
Bright conceded the point and settled back into the pillow. "Doubt I would have made it if you weren't here," he said, "I owe you my life, Artesia Som Daikun."   
Sayla gave him a thankful smile. "Consider it a repayment for letting Sayla live her life."   
"Sayla?" Mirai's voice called from the opening of the cave. "I thought I heard voices. Is everything all right?"   
"Everything's fine," Sayla called back, "he's awake now. He still has a fever, but he'll make it."   
Mirai breathed a sigh of relief and whispered a thank you to the heavens, then knelt down next to Bright, putting a hand on his forehead. "How are you feeling?" she asked.   
"Like I've been hit, kicked, shot and humiliated," he mumbled, looking away from her, "that was never supposed to happen," he added as if to scold himself.   
Mirai sighed inwardly, not relishing the mood Bright seemed to be in nor the reason he seemed to be in it. She neatly folded her hands in her lap in preparation for a serious conversation. "Sayla, could we have a moment?"   
"Certainly," Sayla responded, getting up and making her way out of the cave, "I'll go see what the others have learned about the attack plans."   
"I think we need to talk," Mirai said, once Sayla was out of earshot.   
"It wasn't supposed to happen," Bright repeated.   
"But it did," she affirmed, turning his gaze back to her, "and now we have to deal with it."   
"I promised I would wait."   
"You were scared. You said something you wouldn't have said, otherwise."   
"Soldiers don't get scared."   
"Those kinds of soldiers are inhuman, Bright."   
Bright started and turned away from her again. Even though he didn't say anything further, his eyes spoke volumes. Mirai sensed that she had just made Bright's point for him, forcing into crystal clarity something that had only been cloudy before.   
"Bright, you're only Human, after all," she said, attempting to pick up the pieces.   
He didn't say anything for several moments, still obviously lost in his tangled mind.   
"I wasn't afraid," he finally said, "I said it, and then I wasn't afraid to die. It's never happened before. It wasn't supposed to happen." He slowly, carefully, sat up once again, looking at his hands like foreign objects. "It wasn't supposed to happen," he repeated once more.   
Mirai wasn't sure what to say in response. It was like she was pulling at threads and only managed to tangle things further.   
"If… if it wasn't supposed to happen, then… maybe it just… didn't."   
Bright looked at her with a pained smile. "Thanks Mirai," he said, "but I'm not sure which is worse."   
Mirai put a hand to his face and paused for a moment, looking at him. "You're still feverish," she stated, "you're not thinking clearly. We'll talk about this later."   
"I'll… I'll wait until you think it's time."   
Suddenly, Bright's stomach yowled in displeasure, breaking up their conversation. The two of them looked at each other sheepishly and for no reason at all shared a short laugh.   
"Think it's trying to tell me something?" Bright asked.   
"You should probably eat something and get your strength back," agreed Mirai, "you rest here. I'll go see what I can find." Bright nodded and she got back to her feet and went outside the cave where Frau and the children would almost certainly have had a meal started. Sure enough, they were already passing out bowls of some variety of stew.   
On her way, Mirai passed Clarisse, who was sitting near the mouth of the cave and staring off into some far distance with a contemplative look. Presently, Lets bounced over to her and offered her a bowl of stew.   
"No thanks, I'm not hungry," Clarisse mumbled.   
Lets paused, obviously noting her melancholy state, then slowly wandered away, a slightly hurt look on his face.   
Marker was not far off, sitting on the ground near the cooking fire and about to dig into his own bowlful of stew. He paused, his spoon halfway to his mouth, and looked over at Clarisse, curiously. Summing up conviction, he got up and approached her.   
"Miss Clarisse," he ventured, "you haven't had anything to eat since yesterday. You should really eat something."   
"Why do you keep calling me 'Miss Clarisse'?" she asked out of the blue.   
"What do you mean?"   
"Why so formal? I'm about as informal as a person can get. So, why all the formality?"   
"Well, you are Mister Bright's sister, so…"   
"That's all?" Clarisse grilled him. "It's just because I'm the sister of a guy who happens to be a couple of ranks above you?"   
"It's just that there are certain protocols that have to be-"   
"Oh, hang the bloody protocols! I'm not my brother, so stop treating me like him."   
Marker blinked several times, pondering a suitable response. "Well, I certainly wouldn't be keeping track of Mister Bright's eating habits," he finally stated, "anyway, you really should eat something."   
"I'm not hungry," she repeated.   
Marker looked at the bowl of stew in his hands, then back to Clarisse who was once again staring off into space. He passed the bowl off to the darting by Kikka and sat down next to Clarisse. "If you don't mind my saying," he ventured, "this doesn't seem like it's about food. Miss Mirai told us about what happened. Is everything okay?"   
Clarisse sighed and leaned back against the cliffside, staring up at the light that was waning in the evening sky. "You were in the war, Marker," she said, "did you ever have to… you know… kill anyone?"   
"Not me personally," he responded, "they try to keep tech-heads like me out of the direct line of fire. But I read the Radar that pointed the ship's guns."   
"You just told them where to shoot, then. You never had to pull the trigger."   
"Still," Marker added, "Oscar and I were the ones who made the decisions for what could be fired at and what couldn't. Anything I reported would become an instant target. I remember, during the battle at Solomon, almost at the end, there was a blip that showed on the Radar. It was traveling as fast as it could to escape the battle zone and it was too small for a carrier, too big for a Mobile Suit. I figured it was an escape pod from the fortress, so I didn't report it. I still wonder who was inside it. Maybe, in the future, whoever it was will cause even more war. But I couldn't have lived with myself if I had caused a defenseless escape pod to be destroyed."   
Clarisse seemed as though she wasn't listening, staring off into space as the stars in the Eastern sky began to fade into existence.   
"That's the difference, you know," Marker pressed on, "it's one thing to kill or be killed, but it's another to simply kill. You did the right thing."   
"I did the _necessary_ thing," she corrected him, "that's not always the same as the right thing."   
"Still, you had to do it, so you shouldn't feel guilty about it, Miss Clarisse."   
Clarisse gave Marker a light punch to the shoulder. "Just called me 'Clarisse' already." 

As the night began to drag on, everyone moved inside the cave, hoping to stave off the cold night air with the fire that had been built there. Marker and Mirai were filling Bright in on what had been learned from the data Carnot had given them. The unit commander was sitting against the wall with Marker's laptop, still forced by everyone else to take it easy.   
Kai, meanwhile, was scanning through the radio frequencies, an earpiece in one ear listening for any info the media might blurt out. He paused on one station that was broadcasting news and listened. "Hey!" he chimed. "The media's calling us the Bright Brigade. Kinda like the ring of that."   
"Sure, I like the way it sounds," Amuro stated from his place near the fire where he was fiddling with a piece of equipment from his Gunmarauder, "but I'm not too sure I like the implication."   
"What's wrong with it?"   
"Didn't you have to read Tennyson in high school, Kai?" Clarisse put in.   
"I skipped that day."   
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Sayla asked, sarcastically.   
Bright, Mirai, and Marker looked up from what they were doing for a moment and Bright sighed heavily.   
"Sir?" Marker hazarded.   
"Hmm?" Bright responded.   
"I quit."   
"I'll join you."   
Somewhat painful joke over, everyone turned back to their work. However, the unspoken agreement permeated the cave; they would, from that point on, be calling themselves the Bright Brigade. Despite the overtones of disaster and despite the overtones of a cult of personality, it was better than constantly listing everyone's names over and over.   
Bright just couldn't help but think they were doomed.   
"So, take me through this," he ordered Marker, pushing such thoughts aside, "chronologically."   
Marker nodded and called up the attack specs. "At 2300 tomorrow, a signal will be sent to the orbital weapons platform _Serpent_ which will launch the attack on the colony."   
"Do we know where they're aiming the missiles?" Bright asked.   
Mirai shook her head. "No, that information isn't in the data."   
"A good assumption might be Side Six, Twenty Bunch," stated Marker, "it's still rebuilding from a Zeon attack on a Mobile Suit research facility from the end of the war."   
Bright nodded. "I know the one. McAllis probably would want to take it out right away. Then what?"   
"McAllis has spent the last five days moving troops to Luna II and other bases in space," Marker continued, "an hour after the first shots are fired from the weapons platform, they'll move in on Side Six from all directions and attack."   
"Blunt force," Bright mused, looking as the specs, "he's not going about this too subtly, is he?"   
"It does seem strange," Mirai agreed.   
"Then what happens?" Bright asked of Marker.   
"That's it, sir. He just attacks the colony and fights it out until there's nothing left."   
"That's all? Just fire a few missiles, then attack?" Bright indicated another section of the specs. "What about all these ground forces on Earth?"   
"Defense," stated Mirai, "they're all Mega Particle Cannon units."   
"Probably in case the colony falls," said Marker, " he could try to shoot it into pieces before it hits the planet."   
Bright shook his head. "There's just something all wrong about this. There, look." He zeroed the specs in on Earth in the South American region. "There's no defense around Jaburo. Nothing at all. All the ground units have been reassigned elsewhere, to bases in Europe and North America. It's like he's not concerned about it."   
"Not concerned about the seat of Federation military power?" Mirai asked, skeptically. "That doesn't make any sense at all."   
"There has to be something we're missing."   
"Whoa! There we go!" Kai interrupted, replacing his radio earpiece with a nearby speaker. "Check it out. The decorated General is about to speak his words of wisdom again."   
The various murmurings in the cave were replaced by the whistling hum of the radio and the murmurings of a gathered crowd at the broadcast end.   
"These murders of two of the Federation's finest officers will not go unpunished," McAllis was ranting, "currently, we are redoubling our efforts to find the fugitives and bring them to justice." He paused and there was a clamor of shouted questions. "Please, please, let me finish," he halted them, "further, we still have reason to believe that these attacks are emanating from Side Six. We have contacted the Side Six government and have received only categorical denial concerning the issue. I'll open it up for questions, now."   
The clamor began anew, then died off as one female reporter refused to be drowned out by the others. "General, we've received reports that another officer, a Jean Carnot, was killed last night and that he was working with the Bright Brigade. Can you confirm?"   
"Yes, that's true."   
"Any evidence of other collaborators?"   
"We're looking into that."   
"Dammit," Bright swore over a new clamor on the radio, "we can't lose our support on the inside, not now."   
"General McAllis," rumbled another reporter, a deep-voiced man, "what about the computer security of the automated defense systems? Can they be hacked by the terrorists?"   
"It's unlikely, but I can tell you that the security could be better," McAllis answered.   
"Sir," the first reporter spoke up again, "any truth to rumors of a Federation plan to attack Side Six in the works?"   
McAllis paused for only the most barely noticeable instant. "Absolutely not, we would never attack first. I'm sorry, but our time is up."   
There was a final outburst from the press corps as McAllis apparently left the press conference.   
"That one sure rattled him," Amuro mumbled.   
"That's the first all-out lie he's told, isn't it?" Frau observed. "He is planning to attack Side Six first, right?"   
Bright held up a finger, signaling for another moment to listen to the radio. A newscaster for the station had taken over.   
"So, the press conference at Jaburo is now wrapping up with, it seems, a limited amount of definitive answers. We are told that General McAllis will no longer be available for comments as he is traveling to England to see his personal physician for treatment of a minor flu bug. He will be returning to Jaburo the day after tomorrow when he will resume his duties. In other news, reports of immigrants from Side Three to the satellite asteroid Axis have been growing as-"   
News over, Kai replaced the speaker with his ear piece once again.   
"Bloody hell," Bright murmured to himself, "he's not staying at Jaburo." Frantically, he turned back to the laptop sitting in his lap and called up the Ophiucus mission specs.   
"What about it?" Hayato asked.   
"Convenient timing for the flu, don't you think?" Bright elaborated. "Right before his big attack on Side Six! Of course! He doesn't have defenses around Jaburo not because he doesn't care about it, but because he won't have to. Look." Mirai and Marker glanced over his shoulder at the screen. Extrapolating the course of the orbiting weapons platform _Serpent_, the display showed it as being on a direct line of fire with Jaburo at 2300 the next day. "He's not firing _Serpent_ at Side Six, he's firing it at Jaburo! He's setting it up so that it looks like Side Six fires first!"   
Amuro's eyes went wide. "And he's making it look as though we're the ones pushing the button for them!"   
"So, we've been playing right into his hands all along," Sayla realized, "that press conference must have been to plant his seeds in everyone, to throw attention off of him and on to us."   
Kai agreed. "Leak a little information about Carnot, make it look like we hack the weapons platform…"   
"And make his attack on Side Six look like retaliation," Bright finished, "and with all the evidence to the contrary up in flames with Jaburo, it's the colonies' word against the Federation's, starting another war."   
There was silence in the group for several moments, the crackling of the fire the only sound to echo off the cave walls.   
Finally, it was Kai who spoke up.   
"Does someone wanna tell me how we're supposed to fight _that_?" 

********* 

Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam: The White Base Rebellion... 

"You drop your left elbow," Hayato stated, "and you hardly ever throw any punches with your left fist. Try throwing a few; it gives your opponent an extra target to keep an eye on and it just might help keep your elbow up. The best defense is a good offense."   
"You really think so?" Bright asked, dropping into a stance and throwing a few punches in the air again.   
He paused, considering his two hands, then turned back to Hayato.   
"Could you say that again?"   
***   
"We're going to set a few decoys of our own. The real strike will be from a direction McAllis won't expect."   
***   
"You know, Sayla," Clarisse ventured, "something's been nagging me. The tank only has room for three, comm, helm, and tactical. So, if Mirai, Marker, and Frau are going, where am I supposed to go? And the children?"   
"If I know Mister Bright, he'll make sure you keep out of this battle."   
"I knew it. The fuzzy bugger's trying to protect me again. He keeps doing that. It's enough to drive me loony."   
"You can't blame him," stated Sayla, thoughtfully, "I think it's in the genes of older brothers to obsess about their younger sisters. Mine was the same way."   
***   
"It's a monster. The very idea of you becoming its heart, soul, and mind is disgusting to you, revolting. You want nothing more than to destroy it and destroy that part of you with it."   
Bright started and turned to find Amuro leaning on the side of the cave entrance, looking at him with a curiously intense look. Bright turned back to the Gunmarauder in an effort to avoid that haunting, almost mystical gaze.   
"I'm well aware you're a powerful Newtype, Amuro. But even still, it's really unnerving when you do that."   
***   
Insanity broke loose on the scene once again as the two lines of Mobile Suits, one massive, one miniscule, exchanged fire at very nearly the same moment. The two groups met in hand to hand range a few moments later and Bright lost track of the other four Gunmarauders in his simple struggle to stay alive. Two GMs were running toward him from his left and his right. He poured on his thrusters and flew aloft of them, desperately firing his beam rifle over and over. One shot hit the head of one of the GMs, taking out all the cameras. But the other GM moved in to cover his fallen comrade, firing off shots at Bright with a vengeance. Bright jinked and dodged the fire. Several shots nearly clipped him. A moment later, he found that he was losing altitude and would have to rebound again very soon.   
***   
"You," the massive general spat out, "I don't understand you. I was going to do it for you. For all of you! Why did you stop me?"   
"What," Bright retorted, "what gives you the right to murder your own? What kind of monster would kill hundreds of his own men? And to start a war!"   
***   
And with one metallic, clunking step, Bright's Gunmarauder began leading the long march toward their mission objective. The other four Gunmarauders followed directly after with the tank bringing up the rear in the procession of gleaming tin soldiers of white, blue, red, and gold.   
***   
Chapter four: Charge of the Bright Brigade! Who wil survive?   
  
  



	5. Chapter Four: Charge of the Bright Briga...

Mobile Suit Gundam: The White Base Rebellion   
by Berzerker_prime

Chapter Four: Charge of the Bright Brigade

June 10th UC 0080   
England 

Right. Left. Right, right. Right with a twist. Just nick the jaw.   
To say that it felt good to be up and moving once again would have been pushing it, but Bright had simply started to lose his marbles sitting in that cave. This was no time for him to be flat on his back. If he was going to be any use at all, he had to get up and get moving. So, long before the sun had come up, at somewhere around two in the morning, he did just that.   
Throwing punches in the air outside to get his arms working again, Bright moved through an old routine from his hand to hand lessons at the academy. Right hook, block the inevitable counterattack with the left, right again. The principles were the same as in the fencing he had learned in high school but for one detail; in fencing, you take pains to get your left hand out of the way.   
A pain shot through his left shoulder as he threw a punch with his right fist. 

_ "Damn, that was too easy, Cockney."_   
_ Bright had stepped back, rubbing the spot on his left shoulder where Carnot had landed his punch. "Geeze, Frenchy, we're on the same side, you know."_   
_ "Your whole left side was wide open," Carnot elaborated, "where in the name of God did you learn to fight like that? Mon Dieu, that was terrible, truly terrible." Carnot sighed and rubbed his face with his hand. "This is going to take some work. Okay, give me a fighting stance."_   
_ "Like this?" Bright asked, dropping into an en garde._   
_ "Well, there's the problem," Carnot said, looking at him straight on from the front, "you're using your right arm like some kind of saber, it's way too far to the right. And your left arm is way too far back, out of the way. Bring your fists in tighter to your chin. Good." Carnot got out of the way and stood off to Bright's left. "Now, throw a punch. Whoa! Keep that elbow in tight, don't drop it back as you twist. Do it again. There, better."_   
_ Carnot took up a fighting stance in front of Bright once again. "Let's go again. Concentrate on keeping your left elbow up, this time."_

Bright paused, letting his shoulder throb for several moments. He decided that he must have strained it by pulling his elbow back too far as he threw punches with his right over and over.   
All this time, and he still had to unlearn that bad habit. 

_ "Remember not to drop… your elbow."_

He rubbed his shoulder, hoping to rub away the throb. When it finally subsided, he felt, or thought he felt, something wet on his hand. But when he looked at it, he found it clean.   
For some reason, he found that strange. It made him feel, somehow, unfulfilled, as a child who had not gotten that all-important Red Rider Bee-Bee Gun for Christmas.   
Bright clenched both hands back into fists and started in on the routine once more, adding in the movements of the feet this time, advancing, retreating, retreating, then advancing twice more. Right. Left. Right, right, right hook.   
"Mister Bright?" Hayato's voice came from behind him, bringing another pause to his routine. "Are you sure you should be moving around so much?"   
"Are you mother henning me?"   
"No, sir, wouldn't dream of it."   
"Good choice."   
"It's just that Mirai and Sayla asked me to find you, since it had been a while since you went out for a walk."   
"So, _they're_ mother henning me."   
"Looks like."   
Bright sighed and cast his gaze back to the cave entrance. The rest of the group was gathered inside, around the fire, going over the Ophiucus plans and brainstorming various ideas. "Okay, okay, I guess my head's about as clear as it's going to get anyway." He paused, looking at the group. "Hayato," he ventured, "take a look at them, will you? The ladies, I mean. How did you, me, Amuro, Kai, and Marker manage to find a group of women like them?"   
"What do you mean?"   
"Just look at them. They're stronger than a lot of men I know, braver, too. You don't meet ladies like that every day. And yet, there are Mirai, Sayla, Frau, and my sister; four of them just out of nowhere, right in front of us this whole time."   
"Yeah, they are pretty amazing. I don't know where I would have ended up after Solomon if Frau hadn't been there. I'd keep an eye on Marker, by the way; Clarisse keeps looking his way."   
"Oh don't worry. She could do, and has done, much worse than him."   
Hayato laughed. "No offense, but it's not surprising."   
"Are you kidding? She's been on her best behavior."   
"Say, what was that you were doing earlier?"   
"Just an exercise Carnot taught me once."   
"You drop your left elbow. And you hardly ever throw any punches with your left fist. Try throwing a few; it gives your opponent an extra target to keep an eye on and it just might help keep your elbow up. The best defense is a good offense."   
"You really think so?" Bright asked, dropping into a stance and throwing a few punches in the air again.   
He paused, considering his two hands, then turned back to Hayato.   
"Could you say that again?"   
"What? The best defense is a good offense?"   
"No, no, the part before that, about an opponent?"   
"The other fist gives them something else to worry about?"   
"Yeah," Bright responded, his face vividly showing that a thought was brewing in his head as he threw two more punches in the air; first a right jab, then a left hook. "That's it!"   
"What is?"   
"I've got it. McAllis won't know what hit him. Hayato, you're a genius!" Bright abruptly began making his way back to the rest of the group, back at the cave.   
"Thanks… I think…" Hayato stammered, then followed, hoping to make some sense of just what idea Bright had suddenly gotten.   
"I've got it!" Bright exclaimed, as he arrived back at the cave. He plopped down next to Mirai and plucked the laptop she had out of her lap. "I just figured out what's wrong with what we're trying to do."   
"We're trying to shoot down a weapons platform before it razes half of South America," Kai stated, a touch of his usual sarcasm, "I don't see what's wrong with that."   
"The idea is sound, but it's the execution that gets us," Bright stated, tapping away at the keyboard, "anything in our range that's capable of shooting down _Serpent_ is way too heavily guarded for us to get in and fire with five Gunmarauders and a con tank. But that weapons platform wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't _told to fire_." He turned the laptop around so that the rest of the circle could see its screen. "That's our target," he said, pointing to a red spot on the map, "the Southeast England Communications Station. It's from where McAllis is going to send the signal to _Serpent_."   
"What makes that so much more of an easier target?" Clarisse asked.   
"No nuclear warheads to steal, for one thing," Sayla answered, "fewer soldiers guarding it."   
"I'd bet all of Luna II's Neotitanium that McAllis doesn't trust anyone else to send that signal, either," said Amuro, "so, it's gotta be the only place we can expect a signal to come from."   
"Right," Bright agreed, "that was the decoy. Normally, signals like that would be sent from several places at once. And the normal tactic for countering that is to take out the weapons platform. But if he's going to pull this off, he's gotta keep it under wraps, so only he can do it. We need to take out the less obvious target."   
"Okay, but we still only have five soldiers of our own," Hayato countered, "we still need a viable attack plan."   
"We're going to set a few decoys of our own. The real strike will be from a direction McAllis won't expect." 

The stealth model Gunmarauder was painted red.   
It was a delicious bit of irony; it was almost as though Sayla Mass was becoming a second Red Comet. Here, another Daikun was going to go into battle under another name. But somehow not a comet of equal measure, but smaller. Sayla was blazing her own trail by following the lead of a man from Earth; something Char Aznable never would have done. Not only that, but she shared her blaze of glory with so many others. Despite the difficulty of her path, there was no loneliness on it.   
She was so like her brother, yet so different. She had found a new family.   
Yet, it was still somehow appropriate that her Mobile Suit was red.   
These thoughts flowing through her head, Sayla tweaked the Menovsky output as much as she could on the Gunmarauder. If Bright's plan was going to work, they would need as many of those wacky, Radar-jamming particles as they could muster up.   
"Miss Sayla," Clarisse said, approaching from the direction of the hovertank with a box of tools in hand, "Mister Kai said that you needed your radio checked out. I'm done with the tank now, if you'd like to let me look at it."   
"Sure, if you've got a moment," Sayla responded, letting Clarisse look inside the helmet, "I can't seem to get it to stop interacting with the stealth system and causing static."   
"Here's your problem," stated Clarisse reaching for a tool, "the radio isn't shielded from the Menovsky particle emitters. Just give me a second and it'll be good to go. You know, Sayla, something's been nagging me. The tank only has room for three, comm, helm, and tactical. So, if Mirai, Marker, and Frau are going, where am I supposed to go? And the children?"   
"If I know Mister Bright, he'll make sure you keep out of this battle."   
"I knew it. The fuzzy bugger's trying to protect me again. He keeps doing that. It's enough to drive me loony."   
"You can't blame him," stated Sayla, thoughtfully, "I think it's in the genes of older brothers to obsess about their younger sisters. Mine was the same way."   
" 'Was'?" Clarisse asked. "Did he get killed in the war?"   
"No, but I don't know where he went. The last time I saw him, he was still making some very worrying choices. I tried to tell him what he was doing wasn't right, but he wouldn't listen."   
"I guess that's in the genes of older brothers, too, huh." Clarisse finished her work on Sayla's Gunmarauder and returned her tool to her box, sitting down with it. "To be honest, I'm not all that crazy about the choices my brother's been making either."   
"What do you mean? Is there really any other choice he could make? A soldier's first duty is to protect civilians."   
"That's just it. You all think of him as some kind of military hardass. He's not really like that at all. You know what we both used to call this place when we were kids? Merlin's Cave. Now I come here and he's calling it Hades."   
"Why would he change its name?"   
"I dunno," Clarisse admitted, "that's what's got me worried. I'm not sure I know him at all any more."   
"People live in the moment," Sayla stated, "Humans have to adapt or not survive. It's the one common trait we all have, Earther and Colonist alike. I envy you; at least you have the chance to get to know your brother again." 

Bright let his Gunmarauder spit him out once again and did his best to contain the shiver that ran up his spine. The others were nearby and he couldn't let them see him look shaken. It was his duty to look calm and undisturbed, no matter what. Decked out in the full Core Suit attire, he stood just inside the cave entrance, just out of the midday sun, and gave the waiting Marker an affirming nod.   
"The targeting system is much better, now," he stated.   
"It's not skipping any more?"   
"Not even a single frolic. Would you ask around of the others? Make certain they're not having the same problem. These things _are_ still prototypes. It could be a design bug."   
Marker nodded and made off toward Kai's Gunmarauder some distance off. Hayato went to check the targeting system on his own Mobile Suit. With them otherwise occupied, Bright allowed himself a glance back at his open and waiting Gunmarauder. The open limbs and helmet used all their silent power to beckon to him to enter them, to let them swallow him whole once again. But at the same time, he found himself utterly repulsed by it, like two magnets of the same polarity.   
"It's a monster. The very idea of you becoming its heart, soul, and mind is disgusting to you, revolting. You want nothing more than to destroy it and destroy that part of you with it."   
Bright started and turned to find Amuro leaning on the side of the cave entrance, looking at him with a curiously intense look. Bright turned back to the Gunmarauder in an effort to avoid that haunting, almost mystical gaze.   
"I'm well aware you're a powerful Newtype, Amuro. But even still, it's really unnerving when you do that."   
Amuro shrugged. "I don't need to be a Newtype to remember what it was like to get into the Gundam. So, now you know what it was like. I hate that I got used to it."   
"I suppose you find this to be some kind of poetic justice," Bright mumbled, "for all those times I made you fight with the Gundam."   
"Mister Bright, that's not fair of you to say."   
"Even if that's not how you feel, that's exactly what this is. You're right; now I know." He carefully replaced his look of determination, pushing aside other thoughts and turned back to Amuro. "Still, that's not the issue at hand. Tell the others; we leave in an hour."   
"But why can't I go along, Frau?" Kats' young, protesting voice sounded. Bright and Amuro glanced that direction and found the young boy trailing along behind Frau as she carried a small armload of supplies to the tank. "I'm older than Lets and Kikka! I can fight, too!"   
Frau deposited her load into the tank and turned back to Kats. "You're still too young, Kats," she stated, kneeling down and putting a hand on his small shoulder, "even Mister Bright's little sister is staying behind."   
"But she's a girl," Kats protested, "and she wasn't on White Base with us. I'm old enough, I can fight."   
"No, Kats, you need to stay here."   
"But I wanna go along and help!"   
"I was waiting for that to happen," Amuro mumbled to Bright as they both looked on.   
"Kats!" Bright called, sternly, putting a stop to the boy's protests to Frau and commanding his attention. "Come here," he ordered.   
Meekly, as though he had suddenly shrunk three sizes, Kats sauntered over to Bright. He stopped a few feet from him, shoulders drooping, yet still tense, bracing himself for an inevitable scolding. "Yes, sir?"   
"Show me your hand," Bright instructed.   
As though he was expecting to get a rap across the knuckles, Kats did so and squeezed his eyes shut. Bright squatted down in front of the boy and put his hand out as well, palm up, under Kats'.   
"Tell me what you see."   
Slowly, Kats opened his eyes to observe. "You're wearing the Core Suit."   
"What else?"   
"And I'm not."   
"That's right. And what else?"   
"Your hand's bigger than mine."   
Bright nodded. "Do you know why that is?"   
"Because you're older."   
"That's right. Grown ups need bigger hands because they have to hold a lot more stuff in them. You don't have to just yet. It's something you should enjoy for now because it will go away someday. Do you understand?"   
Kats nodded.   
Bright sighed and smiled a wry smile. "You're older than I was at your age." He put his hand on Kats' shoulder. "We need you to stay here. Listen to Clarisse and help her protect Lets and Kikka, all right?"   
"Yes, sir," Kats responded, nodding.   
"You're a little trooper, Kats," Bright stated, standing, "now go on. And be nice to Frau, she works very hard." As Kats scampered off, Bright turned to Amuro and Frau. "Make sure there's two sidearms left with Clarisse. I don't anticipate she'll need them, but it's better to be safe."   
Frau nodded. "Right."   
Bright wandered off toward Hayato and Kai and their Gunmarauders to find out their status, back in the grips of his profession once again, leaving Amuro and Frau behind in confused silence.   
"What was that about?" Frau asked Amuro.   
"I'm not too sure," Amuro admitted. 

He made the pretense of making one last check of the perimeter again. He knew it wasn't lost on everyone that he went the same direction as he had when Clarisse had first jumped in on their little party a few days ago.   
Speaking of whom, she hadn't shown her face in about an hour or so. It was as if she was avoiding everyone for some reason. But, Bright needed her back at the cave when they left. She had to be the one left to take care of Kats, Lets, and Kikka, who would undoubtedly be restless with everything that was going on.   
Bright found Clarisse laying lengthwise on that toppled tree he had discovered days earlier. She had shed her trademark green jacket and had it bundled up under her head as a pillow. Her yellow scarf remained tied around her neck, its tails resting on her chest and clashing with her purple turtleneck. She was staring up at the tops of the other trees, a rather uncharacteristically intense look in her eyes.   
"I thought I'd find you over here," Bright said to her, "we're going to leave soon and-"   
"Don't," she interrupted him, "let's not talk about that." She sat up, straddling the tree as though she were riding a horse. "Remember that time when I couldn't quite fit into the hiding place? I musta cried for hours. Boy, was I an idiot back then or what?"   
Bright smiled and sat down next to her on the tree, Core Suit clacking against the wood. "Come to think of it, that was the last time we ever played hide and seek together, wasn't it?"   
Clarisse paused, staring off into the nearby woods. "And then there was the time you and papa tried to catch that rabbit for dinner and I kept insisting that you couldn't kill it because it was the king of the forest spirits. Remember that?"   
"Do I ever. We had to bring canned meat from home after that."   
She paused again. "And that time when we forgot the gas lighter for the fire and papa tried to rub sticks together. We had to eat everything cold, remember?"   
Bright laughed. "Yeah, the next year was the year I started making the infamous packing list."   
Clarisse made a sour face and punched his good shoulder.   
"Hey, what was that for?" Bright asked. In response, she slid over to him and hugged him tightly.   
"Big brother, you're a hopeless case." 

"Call signs? You've gotta be kidding me! We don't have call signs yet?"   
Thus spake Mirai Yashima in a rather harried and hurried voice. She was standing in the middle of the clearing in front of the cave as everyone else milled about and asked questions of her as they zipped by. She looked for all the world like some perfectionist backstage theater director at the world's largest production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.   
"Oh, for Pete's sake," she groused, "you're telling me we've gone all this time and we never got together any call signs?" She sighed, rubbing her temples. "Okay, okay, let's keep it simple. Bright will be Gunmarauder one, Amuro two, Hayato three, Sayla four, Kai five, and the tank will be con. Everyone got that? Good. Where in the world has Bright gone?"   
"Whoa," exclaimed Clarisse as she and Bright returned to the area, "looks like a disaster area, doesn't it."   
"Here we go," Bright mumbled, giving Clarisse a reassuring pat on the back before zipping off to catch up with Mirai.   
Clarisse was left standing there, a wide-eyed, mystified look on her face as everything swirled around her.   
"Has anyone seen my Core Suit glove?" Kai called out.   
"Heads up!" Amuro called back to him just before the errant glove went flying past inches away from Clarisse's face.   
"We're all doomed," she sighed to herself. She then spotted Marker with a stack of boxes in his arms, all the way up to his chin. He was slowly staggering his way back toward the cave with them, fumbling around a few randomly scattered rocks here and there as he went. She rushed over and grabbed a couple of boxes from off the top of his stack and followed him in.   
"Thanks," Marker said as they placed them down inside the cave.   
"You looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, there," she joked.   
"You wouldn't believe the parts everyone needed at the last minute. I seriously wonder about this group of people sometimes."   
"I'm beginning to see why. Hey Marker, listen. Keep an eye on my brother's back out there, okay? And, you know, watch yours, too."   
"Absolutely. How could I ever turn down a request from a lady?"   
Clarisse crossed her arms in mock indignation. "If I ever find out who's been spreading that rumor about me, I swear…"   
"Hey, Marker!" Mirai called. "Could you check the power level on the tank again for me?"   
"I checked it twice already," he shouted back.   
"Just once more for me, please. I don't want the power cutting out tonight."   
"You got it," Marker answered, then shrugged to Clarisse as he went about his work. He passed Bright and Mirai on the way who were consulting a map for the thirtieth time that day.   
"So, they're here, they're here, and we're here," Mirai confirmed one last time, pointing to three different places on the map.   
"Right, then they attack them here and a little bit later-"   
"They attack them here."   
"Right." Bright blinked. "Wait, which 'they' were we talking about, there?"   
"Don't worry, Bright. I've got it down. And Marker and Frau both know it inside out as well."   
Bright sighed, folding up the map. "What in the world are we doing, Mirai? We must be crazy to try to pull this off."   
"You're acting like something's new. Don't worry, everything will turn out all right."   
"Mirai, have I ever thanked you for trusting in me so completely?"   
"Only every day we were aboard White Base and a great many times since."   
"Well, consider this just one more time, then."   
"You don't have to say it out loud any more."   
"Yes, I do."   
"Mister Bright!" Frau called as she approached the pair. As they both looked up, they found that a considerable amount of the activity had calmed down and most of the rest of the group was gathered near the mouth of the cave. "Everything's ready to go, Mister Bright," Frau stated.   
"Right," Bright responded, "thanks Frau Beau. Looks like it's time, then. I'll be right there." He motioned that the two ladies should wait for him with the rest of the group. They both hesitated for an instant, then left him alone for the moment.   
Bright looked about the place, looked at the treetops, the rock formations, the paths through the woods he knew so well. He recalled every early summer camp out he had had as a child with his father and sister, recalled the slow change in the way they did things, recalled the slow drift from those traditions as they all grew. 

_ "Sometimes it's better not to hold so much at once. Don't be in such a hurry to have to hold everything in your hands, okay?"___

_ "I don't wanna be bigger. I wanna get into my hiding spot."___

_ "I leave tomorrow for R&D officer training. I'm an adult and I have to make my own decisions."___

_ "Let's go again. Concentrate on keeping your left elbow up, this time."___

_ "I'm sorry to say that your family has informed us that your father has been killed in a shuttle accident while on route to Side Six."___

_ "Soon, this war will be over and we won't have to send kids like you into battle any more."___

_ "It's a kid! The pilot inside Gundam is a kid!"___

_ "Maybe you should go ask Captain Paolo what he thinks."___

_ "You always have to be the responsible one, don't you. Everyone's counting on you."___

_ "I didn't just leave White Base because I felt like it! You aren't even letting me tell my side of the story!"___

_ "I don't think our Mister Bright is being honest about his feelings. Am I right, Mirai?"___

_ "A ship without a commander does seem ludicrous, but I'm just not up to the task, Bright."___

_ "Mirai. You have to make your own decisions and take command."___

_ "If I don't get everyone out of here, we'll all be killed?"___

_ "Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Zero!"___

_ "Mirai, I've said it before. I'll always be here waiting for you."___

_ "Mirai, I love you!"___

_ "It wasn't supposed to happen."___

_ "Does someone wanna tell me how we're supposed to fight _that_?"_

There was no going back, not ever. It was over and he had to accept it, no matter what that meant for his future and the future of those around him. What was done was done, what was past was past. It was impossible to turn back time.   
Calling up the sum result of his past experience, he turned back to the group and slowly approached. As he neared, the group halted their various murmurings and fell silent, staring at him expectedly. Bright took a breath and barked out one sure, unwavering order.   
"Bright Brigade. Move out."   
"Sir!" the whole group responded in unison, then scrambled off to their various positions.   
There were five series of clatters as the five pilots of the Gunmarauders got into the miniature Mobile Suits. Mirai, Frau, and Marker all climbed into the tank and took up their positions.   
"All positions, report in to con," Frau's voice came over the radio system, "communications, ready."   
"Tactical, ready," came Marker's voice.   
"Con helm, ready," Mirai likewise called.   
"Gunmarauder five, ready," Kai said.   
"Gunmarauder four, ready," Sayla intoned.   
"Gunmarauder three, ready," Hayato stated.   
"Gunmarauder two, ready," Amuro said.   
"Gunmarauder one, ready," Bright put in, "all hands, mission commence. Maintain radio silence until attack positions have been reached."   
And with one metallic, clunking step, Bright's Gunmarauder began leading the long march toward their mission objective. The other four Gunmarauders followed directly after with the tank bringing up the rear in the procession of gleaming tin soldiers of white, blue, red, and gold. 

Night had fallen during their journey and they made it to the outskirts of the patrol region of the Southeast England Communications station well after sundown. It had taken them a good seven hours to make it there and they had now been waiting, staked out in the surrounding green space, for about an hour. It had been just long enough that Amuro, Sayla, and Kai had just managed to get their three Gunmarauders into position and well hidden.   
And now they started the waiting game. They needed to hide out for a while in case their movement had been detected. They wanted to appear as though they were some random wildlife making a move and not a hostile force. Luckily, their size helped do just that.   
Amuro poked his binoculars out of their web of camouflage and looked eastward toward the broadcast tower and the smaller accompanying building next to it. It sat at the ridge of an ancient, long since worn down glacial drumlin, in the center of a massive clearing in the surrounding woodland. The building was situated partway into the northern, steeper, edge of the hill. The tower was situated to the building's south, at the very top of the hill. The objective was simple; take down the tower.   
"Amuro would you put those down already?" Kai asked. "You're gonna get us seen."   
"Keep it down, Kai," Sayla scolded, "_you're_ gonna get us _heard_. Anything, Amuro?"   
"No, no patrols yet," Amuro responded, "I guess they think it's not important enough a base to guard it heavily."   
"Fine with me," Kai shrugged blithely, "makes this all the easier. We might actually even make it out of this alive."   
"Kai!" Sayla exclaimed.   
"Actually, he's right this time," Amuro stated, crawling back under the makeshift lean-too of branches and greenery, "I have to admit, I had my doubts about this, but seeing it so poorly guarded, now I think we've got a better chance."   
"You're not saying you have no faith in Bright's plan, are you?" Sayla asked the two of them.   
"Decoys within decoys," Kai groused, folding his arms behind his head and leaning back against the leg of his Gunmarauder, "are we fighting a battle or hunting ducks?" 

To the south of the base, the Bright Brigade's command tank sat amongst the trees and other greenery silently, the only movement from it being the scope connected to the tactical station within.   
Mirai sat at the helm, ringing her hands anxiously, eyes fixed on her monitor in front of her, staring at the communications tower directly ahead.   
"That certainly is a big tower," she mused.   
"That's a good thing," stated Marker, "higher center of gravity, easier to topple."   
"You're assuming they didn't keep that in mind when they built it, though," Frau put in.   
"Just trying to help," Marker responded.   
"What kind of defenses are you reading, Marker? Anything that's going to cause us a problem we didn't think of?"   
Marker consulted his readouts, flipping through several views of the area and drawing conclusions. "There are two objects by the tower. Based on their size and power output, they appear to be two GM Mobile Suits. One is to the southeast, one is to the southwest."   
"Nothing on the other side of the building?"   
"I'm not reading anything."   
"That's strange."   
"Maybe we should go around to the other side where there's less defense," suggested Frau, "it might make it easier to stop the radio transmission."   
Mirai shook her head. "No, we'll just have to circle around the building in order to get to the tower, then. And we'd have to go up a steeper hill. We'll have to take on the GMs eventually, so it might as well be on the better ground."   
"I suppose."   
"Anyway, Frau, are you picking up any radio transmissions from the base?" Mirai asked.   
"No, I can't seem to get the right frequency. It won't tune in right."   
"That's all right. It was just a thought. We don't need it, so don't worry about it. The last thing we need is for them to pick us up while we're trying to pick them up." 

"Ow! Geeze!" The exclamation from Hayato was accompanied by the sound of a slap and when Bright turned to him from his gaze through his binoculars, he found the shorter man scratching his neck. "Darn bugs," Hayato complained, "how come they're not bothering you?"   
"Used to it," Bright responded, looking back to the building that was their target.   
"I keep forgetting. You were born here. We must have picked a nest or something to sit in because they're really driving me crazy."   
"Just another half an hour, Hayato. At 2200, that tower comes down and we're all done with this fiasco. Kinda strange, though."   
"What is?" Hayato peered through their camouflage next to Bright and looked toward the base.   
"There's only two GMs out there," Bright mused, "I know McAllis doesn't want to draw attention to his being here, but it still seems strange that he didn't bring more security with him."   
"Isn't that a good thing?" Hayato asked. "Doesn't that mean he isn't expecting us in the slightest?"   
Bright grunted a response in the affirmative, still looking through the binoculars. "Still, I just have this funny feeling. With all those close calls with Hadagawa, I'm just wondering when our luck will run out."   
"Good point."   
Bright suddenly hushed Hayato with a hand, stopping his sweeping motion of his binoculars in favor of fixing them on one spot. "I think it just did," he whispered. Putting down the binoculars, he picked up his sidearm and pushed a flare gun into Hayato's hands. "Patrol's coming this way. Stay here with the Gunmarauders. If you hear a gunshot, signal the others to start early and go."   
"Without you?"   
"Be realistic, Hayato. If all you hear is a gunshot, I could be dead anyway." Bright flipped the camouflage web up and let himself out as silently as he could and started away from their position toward where he had seen the patrolman.   
"My, aren't we optimistic," groused Hayato to himself.   
Cautiously, Bright made his way through the greenery, taking care not to snap any errant twigs or rustle any miscellaneous branches as he approached the patrolman. A flashlight beam appeared and Bright ducked behind the nearest tree to avoid the sweeping spot that was allowing the patrolman to see clearly in the dark. It swept around to Bright's left and then disappeared as the patrolman started back the way he had come. Bright stepped out from behind the tree to make sure he was really taking his leave when suddenly a small woodland creature, probably a rabbit judging from how it moved, went darting into the stand of bushes nearby. The patrolman whipped back around, flashing his light back on again and Bright barely managed to get back behind the tree in time.   
"Just go away," Bright whispered very silently, hoping that somehow he miraculously had Newtype powers after all and could implant the suggestion in the patrolman's mind.   
No such luck, though. "Security, this is patrol three," the patrolman said into his radio, "possible movement in sector 26. I'm going to check it out."   
"Roger that, patrol three," came the reply from the other end.   
Bright bided his time, hoping that the patrolman's search would take him in another direction. But he knew that if he went any further into the woods, odds were that the patrolman would spot Hayato and the Gunmarauders. He had no choice but to shut the patrolman up.   
The patrolman came almost directly Bright's way, passing the tree Bright was hiding behind in no time at all. The hapless patrolman's reward for his diligent work was a sudden fist to the back of the neck, a very short-lived world of pain, and then a nice, probably well-deserved nap in a silent sanctuary of black.   
Bright shook his right hand as it throbbed. "I swear, they hire these guys for the amount of bone content in their heads," he whispered to himself. He was about to make his way back to where Hayato was still hiding when he heard the unconscious patrolman's radio come to life again.   
"Patrol three, check in, please. What's your status?"   
Bright scooped up the device and toggled it on. "Uh roger that, sir. Everything's clear."   
"Hanson, that you?"   
"Yes, sir, Hanson. Patrol three, sir."   
There was a long pause from the other end.   
"Your name's not Hanson."   
"My mistake," Bright stated, then dropped the radio on the ground.   
"Who is this?" came the accusing inquiry just before Bright put a bullet through the casing and the circuitry of the offending device.   
As Bright took off at a run back toward Hayato and the Gunmarauders, he heard the whistle of a flare streak over his head toward the northeast. The firework went off directly to the east of the base, lighting the area in a flare of white as bright as a full moon on the clearest of nights. As he approached the hiding place, he heard the clatter of Hayato's Gunmarauder activating. He looked at the suited up Hayato for confirmation.   
"They saw it," came Hayato's reply from the Gunmarauder's external speakers. "Sayla's starting now."   
"Good," Bright said, uncovering his Mobile Suit and stepping into the open and waiting frame. "Just one more time," he mused to himself as he thrust his hands into the arms of the Gunmarauder, "just once more as the monster." He turned his left wrist and closed the control connections. The suit closed around him in that same clatter of clamps and hinges. As the helmet display activated, he heard the radio kick in as well.   
"Menovsky readings at 70% of maximum," Marker's voice came through, "GM Mobile Suits are proceeding toward Gunmarauders two, four, and five."   
"Gunmarauder one, online," Bright reported in, "they're taking the bait and chasing the Menovsky particles, people. I want to know when the GMs are two-hundred feet from Amuro and the others. Gunmarauder four, keep up the Menovsky broadcast. Gunmarauder three, follow me in, but do not attack until I say so."   
"Roger," came Sayla's reply.   
"Got it," Hayato agreed.   
Bright and his Gunmarauder broke into a run, Hayato hot on his heels, straight toward the base, metal shod feet vibrating the ground with every step. Their strides were enhanced by their Mobile Suits and they covered the distance to the edge of the tree line in a very short amount of time. Skidding to a halt, the both stepped just outside of the woods to observe the two GMs which were heading toward Amuro, Sayla, and Kai's position.   
"GM's closing," Marker reported, "three hundred feet… two-fifty… two hundred feet."   
"Gunmarauders one and three, attack!" Bright barked out, kicking in his thrusters and flying into the air. He and Hayato went sailing toward the two GMs, beam rifles firing off bright red lances of energy. One of the beams hit one of the GMs in the back and speared through the cockpit. As the Mobile Suit went up in a ball of fire, the other turned and starting firing off shots at them. Bright and Hayato split paths and dodged the other pilot's aim.   
"Gunmarauder five, attack the tower now!" Frau's voice came through the radio. "Gunmarauders two and four, provide cover."   
"Roger," three voices chimed at once.   
Under fire from the GM, bullets clanging loudly off the Neotitanium in his Gunmarauder, Bright came down in the clearing and took off once again, changing his angle slightly so that he was charging straight at the GM. Hayato was raining fire down on it from above, covering Bright's rebound and renewed charge. Bringing his beam saber to bear, he skyrocketed toward the larger Mobile Suit with the weapon's point aimed directly for the main camera.   
The other Mobile Suit ducked out of the way at the last second. Bright's wild momentum dictated a continued flight forward and before he knew it, the GM had spun around and swatted him from the left. The impact made Bright's bad shoulder scream out in agony and it was all he could do to keep his own pain-filled exclamation to a short burst of a yelp as he careened through the air. He barely managed to get under control and get his thrusters under him enough to land at a safe velocity. As it was, he tumbled to all fours as he landed. As he recovered, he spotted Hayato's Gunmarauder come up behind the GM, whipping its heat rod through the mass produced Mobile Suit's neck joint and finishing it off with a beam rifle shot through the belly. The GM toppled in a flaming mass to the ground and it was all Bright could do to avoid the falling metal pyre as he rolled away.   
"Enemy approaching from the north!" Marker's panicked voice suddenly sounded.   
"What?" Bright exclaimed. "How many?"   
"A dozen, no wait, fourteen, fifteen, a whole squadron. They must have been hiding in the mountain's shadow!"   
Bright ground his teeth. And Kai's demolition model Gunmarauder was still too far from the tower to bring it down.   
"Do we retreat?" Frau inquired.   
Bright growled out some of his frustration. Dammit, things had been going just as planned! Now what?   
"Mister Bright?" Frau pressed.   
"Negative," Bright barked back, getting his Mobile Suit to its feet, "if that tower stays, Side Six goes. Continue attack."   
"Roger," Frau responded, "all units continue attack. Repeat, all units continue attack."   
The squadron of GMs appeared over the ridge of the mountain now and all five Gunmarauders took off into the sky once again, racing to meet them from the southwest and the southeast.   
Insanity broke loose on the scene once again as the two lines of Mobile Suits, one massive, one miniscule, exchanged fire at very nearly the same moment. The two groups met in hand to hand range a few moments later and Bright lost track of the other four Gunmarauders in his simple struggle to stay alive. Two GMs were running toward him from his left and his right. He poured on his thrusters and flew aloft of them, desperately firing his beam rifle over and over. One shot hit the head of one of the GMs, taking out all the cameras. But the other GM moved in to cover his fallen comrade, firing off shots at Bright with a vengeance. Bright jinked and dodged the fire. Several shots nearly clipped him. A moment later, he found that he was losing altitude and would have to rebound again very soon.   
Something clicked in Bright's brain. Before he knew it, his left arm was moving up as a shield and ricocheted a hail of bullets that would have otherwise taken out his head.   
The world became fluid, as though it were suddenly filled to the very heavens with molasses. The only sound Bright heard was that of his own breathing in his ears and the pounding of his heart. It was as though his Mobile Suit has taken over his body, moving in some predetermined, programmed battle scenario. No longer was Bright aware of the movements he was making. He was only aware that, somehow, that monster of a Mobile Suit was keeping him alive.   
It wasn't completely unpleasant. It was as though that enmity with the Gunmarauder had suddenly somehow been resolved, as though some new truce had been reached. Something had taken over without the permission of Bright's civilized brain. Something had overridden the control of his very body.   
Why? Why was he suddenly not disgusted by it? Why was he now able to accept the Gunmarauder? What kind of monster had he become?   
Why was an entire squadron of GM Mobile Suits there? Why had McAllis been able to predict their attack so easily?   
More importantly, what did that have to do with the Gunmarauder?   
"I've been hit! All my systems are down!" Kai's voice echoed across the expanse of the thick, fluid world.   
"Amuro! Cover Kai!" Bright found his mouth saying as the rest of his body didn't miss a beat, still fighting with that mechanized perfection. It turned to take out an approaching GM with its beam rifle as it fell and rebounded off the ground.   
He was taking off again before he realized it. As the metal monster flew forward, that detached section of Bright's mind realized which way forward was. For a split second that was lasting a lifetime, there was a clear path all the way to the tower.   
"I have an opening!" his cool voice proclaimed.   
_ Bright! Be yourself again!_   
Like a thunderbolt splitting a tree, Mirai reached out across the expanse of the molasses world in anguish and shattered the monster's control.   
The world returned to its normal rate of motion and Bright heard bullets clanging off the Gunmarauder as he sped on toward the tower.   
"I'm taking it!" he shouted, not quite certain if he managed not to make it sound as if he had was on a suddenly out of control thrill ride.   
A second later, Bright and his Gunmarauder crashed into the side of the radio tower, slicing through the supports with the beam saber. The impact took out all of his cameras, so he wasn't certain what the second, more unforgiving impact against him was. It was another moment and he felt himself falling, thrusters of his Gunmarauder sputtering out.   
Bright Noah landed with a very hard thud in a land of pitch black and silence. 

What did that have to do with the Gunmarauder?   
The thought echoed through Mirai's mind. For a moment, she didn't know where it came from, but after that sudden feeling of cold black surrounding something warm and light, she knew exactly what it was.   
She shouted his name in her mind even as Marker reported that Gunmarauder one was approaching the radio tower at top speed.   
Both feelings disappeared a second after the tower began to fall, raining down bits of twisted metal for almost a quarter mile. She watched it all fall for what felt like an eternity. Once it had all fallen, she looked over to Frau. Frau was wearing a concerned face of her own.   
"M… Mirai?" she asked.   
"Find out if he's still there, Frau! Hurry!"   
"Right!" Frau exclaimed, turning back to her station. "Con to Gunmarauder one. Con to Gunmarauder one, please respond. Mister Bright, please respond, this is con to Gunmarauder one."   
"Mirai," Marker ventured, "you don't think-"   
"Don't finish that sentence!" she snapped back at him, turning on the tank's engines and hover nozzles. Listening intently to Frau's radio, Mirai moved the tank forward to the clearing, avoiding as much fallen, twisted, metal debris as she could.   
"Con, this is Gunmarauder two," Amuro broke in, "all the GMs are gone. Most were taken out by the tower falling. All of us are accounted for. Any sign of Mister Bright?"   
"We're working on that, Amuro," Frau responded.   
"Start searching for survivors," Mirai ordered, "_any_ survivors. _Any_ signs of life at all."   
"Roger," came five voices all at once. 

The hill that had once been a magnificent monument to glacial movements of prehistory now appeared to be a vast wasteland of discarded building materials. It now stood as a silent monument to a hard battle fought, a hard victory won. It stood as a testament to an ignorant act born out of a mass-duping of an entire squadron of Mobile Suits by one man who had ordered them there.   
It stood as a silent monument to soldiers.   
But fate refused to allow its silence.   
In a corner unobserved by Human eyes, something moved under the warped beams and fallen debris. It pushed its way to the surface, erupting out of the layers of metal and cement like a volcano through a long-sealed mountaintop. When it burst forth, it stood as a silent, disfigured witness amongst all the disfigured iron.   
The already monstrous looking Gunmarauder was battered and beaten, cracks showing on its casing and sparks leaping from shattered joints.   
"Warning," a mechanized, feminine voice sounded in Bright's ears, the first since he had finally come to, "all systems critically damaged. System shutdown initialized."   
Like the final breath of a dying man, the Gunmarauder exhaled Bright out into the landscape of misshapen, alien looking metals and cements, burning woods and smoldering ashes. Bright stumbled in the unfamiliar scene that was lit only by the nearby burning fires and fell to all fours. He collapsed further when his bad shoulder protested the hard landing and he was flat on his stomach, breathing hard and feeling extremely light headed.   
His face had landed on a flat surface of metal. Bright laid there for a while, letting his heart slow and letting the cold metal seep away the heat from the fire that had burned within him and almost consumed him.   
It would have if it hadn't been for Mirai. That was one thing he knew for certain.   
He wasn't sure how long he remained like that. But he was brought out of his blissfully semi-conscious state by a movement not too far off. It sounded like heavy duty hinges creaking as a massive door was opened.   
It could only be one person.   
Reluctantly, Bright tore himself away from the cool piece of metal and began to get to his feet. By the time he had painfully climbed his way to them, he found himself looking straight into the eyes of Louis McAllis.   
"You," the massive general spat out, "I don't understand you. I was going to do it for you. For all of you! Why did you stop me?"   
"What," Bright retorted, "what gives you the right to murder your own? What kind of monster would kill hundreds of his own men? And to start a war!"   
McAllis took a few steps toward Bright, wearing a scowl like a rabid wolf. "A monster like me," he answered, "and a monster that children soldiers like you should become!" With that, he launched himself at Bright, throwing his considerable weight behind the tackle and knocking the younger soldier to the ground.   
Bright hit the ground hard and it was all he could do to kick his legs up to stop McAllis from coming down on him with a rather hefty iron rod he had picked up. As McAllis reeled backward, Bright took the chance to get to his feet again.   
"I will never become a monster like you!" Bright spat, throwing a punch at McAllis with his right fist.   
"You already have!" McAllis shot back, grabbing the proffered arm and pulling, then following through with a knee to Bright's stomach.   
Bright fell to his knees holding his sides as McAllis backed off for a moment.   
"No one who isn't a monster of a soldier would have stolen the Gunmarauders," McAllis elaborated, "and you killed your own to get them. And to get to me. Like me? You have become me. And you, my young soldier, were only to be the first. But now, it's all over. Now, I'll have to start again, with someone else." He grabbed one end of a nearby section of fallen beam and lifted it high above his head with some effort. Slowly, carefully, he held it over Bright as though he was taking aim to use it as some sort of bludgeon.   
Bright's hand found a rod of some length and without thinking about it in the slightest, he brought it up and thrust it forward. It skewered McAllis through the gut, causing the massive man to drop the heavy beam behind him instead of on top of Bright.   
Strangely enough, McAllis looked satisfied.   
"That look," he croaked out as he sank to his knees, "you have the look of a monster in your eyes, young Mister Bright." Limply, McAllis fell backward, the rod still sticking out of him. Slowly, he turned his head to look at Bright. "You should be grateful to me. Now, you're a truly strong soldier." And with nothing further, his consciousness departed, leaving Bright with that thought and that thought alone.   
"I am a… a… I am… _not_ a monster. I will not let it be that way."   
He flopped on to his back and watched the sparks and embers of the nearby fires drift away into the night sky. He felt his heartbeat finally slow and he felt a dark pall lift off his chest.   
"I will not let it," he whispered to the sky, "I'm stronger than it is."   
"Mister Bright!" he heard a voice far off yell. It was immediately followed by at least two others.   
"Over here," he said.   
"Bright, where are you?" came the distressed voice of Amuro.   
"Over here!" he yelled, summing up some energy. Soon, he heard someone scrambling over a pile of debris near him. He looked up and found the red-headed Newtype looking down at him with an indescribable look of relief.   
"I found him!" he yelled over his shoulder, then climbed down next to Bright. "Are you all right?"   
"I feel terrible," Bright admitted, bluntly.   
Amuro looked over to McAllis' lifeless body. "Is that…?"   
"He's dead," stated Bright, "it's over."   
"Did he say anything? Did he say why he wanted to attack Side Six?"   
"Nothing important," Bright responded, slowly sitting up. Amuro pulled him to his feet.   
"We should get back to the others and get out of here," Amuro said as they both moved through the remains of the fallen radio tower, "before more soldiers show up."   
"No need for that," said Bright, "if Clarisse has done her job, they already know all about it. And I'm sure Carnot's people will come out with it in a matter of hours. There'll be an inquiry into it, but I'm sure nothing too annoying will come out of it." One of Bright's tired feet caught on the edge of a piece of a beam and he tripped. But Amuro was there, hauling him back to his feet quick as lightning.   
"Take it easy, I got you."   
"I'm perfectly capable of walking on my own, Amuro."   
"Forget it. You just had a radio tower fall on you," the younger man shot back as he got under Bright's right shoulder.   
Bright laughed. "I don't care what Ryu ever said about you. You're still as stubborn a jackass as you were last September."   
"Look who's talking."   
It wasn't long before they ran into Sayla, Kai, and Hayato. Ignoring Bright's protests to the contrary, Sayla got under Bright's left shoulder and together, the five of them made their way out of the thick of the debris field.   
"Is your shoulder all right?" Sayla asked. "Is there anything you need?"   
"A vacation, a couch, a fluffy pillow, and aspirin," Bright responded glibly which garnered him a few laughs.   
"Bright!" Mirai's voice came to them once they felt grass and ground below their feet again. She, Frau, and Marker were all rushing toward them, looks of intense relief covering their faces like festival masks.   
Bright shrugged off of Amuro and Sayla's shoulders and stepped out in front of the group of five pilots returning from the radio tower. He suddenly had a renewed energy and vigor, a sort of second wind.   
Ignoring everyone else, Mirai jumped forward and attached herself to Bright. Feeling his heart skip several beats at once and that old warm feeling growing in his face, he spun around with her with a child-like whimsy that felt as though it had been a lifetime away until that moment.   
"Now," she said to him, "now we talk about it."   
"Now?" he asked. "Then, I have a question to ask you."   
Before he could go any further, Mirai put a hand over his mouth to silence him. "The answer is yes."   
As though the rest of the world wasn't there, as though nothing important had happened before, as though a whole new story was now starting, the two of them stared into one another's eyes. Everything fell away as their heads gravitated toward each other like orbiting binary stars and they met in the middle in a storybook kiss of a child's fairy tail. 

_ Sitting at the top of a hillside under a large oak tree, overlooking the entire Noah farmstead, the marker seemed to Bright to be small, cold, and entirely too dead. The Sun had just gone down and twilight was setting in over the farm, like a blanket of darkness that longed to wrap the world in a warm, drowsy embrace._   
_ This new marker sat next to the old one; the one that bore the name of his father. This new marker now bore the names of several others, including that of his own son. Hathaway's was the last name he would ever add to the marker. He was finished with it all. He would never fight again. He had no reason to._   
_ Paolo Cassius, Ryu Hose, Sleggar Rowe, Jean Carnot, Kats Kobayashi, Hayato Kobayashi, Amuro Ray, Hathaway Noah. It was a painful list of memories and a painful list of lessons. They were the greatest teachers he had ever had. And they all taught him lessons that he had failed to pass on to the last name among them._   
_ But that didn't matter any more. He would never fight again. It was done._   
_ "Grandpa! Grandpa Bright!"_   
_ He looked up at the sound of the tiny voice that called him. It was an honorary title, but he enjoyed it, none the less. It was Kikka Kobayashi's oldest daughter, Himiko, that came zipping his way now, familiar head of straw blonde hair blowing in the breeze and shaking the red bow reminiscent of another long forgotten._   
_ The five-year-old stopped at his feet and looked up at him. "Grandma Mirai says you're late for supper. You're going to miss the A Bao A Qu Day fireworks."_   
_ Bright laughed, lifting the little girl on to his shoulders in a piggy back. "You know she just wants us to eat our vegetables," he mockingly stated to which Himiko made a grossed-out face._   
_ Before hiking back across the field with his precious cargo, he cast one last look at the new marker._   
_ Perhaps he still had a chance to make sure their lessons were passed on._   


Dedicated to the men and women who defend us from those who never learned the lessons of humanity.   
Be brave, be strong, be a soldier…   
… be human.   



	6. Chapter Omake: Author's Self Parody

Hey folks! This is just a few selections of humor related to this fic that refused to go away, so I thought I'd write them down and share the horror. 

PLEASE NOTE: This chapter should be considered as having an R rating for some implied sophomoric level (read: "gutter level") humor. 

Your less-than-sane author,   
Berz. 

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- 

Mystery Fanfic Theater 3000

(Mike, Crow, and Tom enter the theater and sit down in front of the fic fragment) 

Mike: (imitating a Julia Child) And here we've got another fic of the rabid fangirl variety. 

_ "Papa, your hands are really big!"_

Mike and Bots: EEEEWWWW!!! 

_ Daniel Noah paused in the middle of his stretch and looked over at his son._

Tom: Tell me it's not another Yaoi fic!   
Crow: This could end up even worse… 

_ "That's a strange comment, Bright," he said, "what makes you say that?"_

Mike: (imitating Daniel Noah) Is it my manly good looks?   
Crow: (imitating young Bright) No, it's just that they're sticky. 

_ The seven year old held his own hand up into the air next to his father's. The tiny hand was so completely overshadowed as to seem a hopeless cause._

Mike and Bots: (singing) I wanna hold your haaaaaaaaannndddd! 

_ "My hand's little," said young Bright, "you can hold a lot of stuff in yours. I wish mine were bigger."_   
_ Daniel slowly lowered his hand and rested it on his stomach. "Bright," he said at length,_

Tom: (imitating Daniel Noah) I'm not wearing any pants. 

_ "sometimes it's better not to hold so much at once. Don't be in such a hurry to have to hold everything in your hands, okay?"_

Crow: It leads to having to pay child support. I should know! 

_ "Yessir," Bright responded, not entirely sure what his father meant._

Mike: But dreading every word. 

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- 

SD Gundam Fanfic Omake: Chapter One – Sort of Like a Pilot Chapter

(Bright and Mirai in SD form sit down at the kitchen table to eat.) 

Bright: Mirai, will you date me? 

(Mirai tosses a date at Bright. Bright facefaults, then recovers and sits in the chair once again. Mirai holds up her hand in the typical Anime v-for-victory symbol. SD Clarisse comes zipping into the room and tackle-glomps Bright.) 

Clarisse: Niichan niichan niichan! 

(Bright begins to turn purple.) 

Mirai: Uh… I don't think he can breathe. Who are you, anyway?   
Clarisse: Isn't it obvious? I'm the requisite self-insertion character! Aren't I cute!?!   
Mirai: I still don't think he can breathe…   
Clarisse: Oh don't worry, it's all good.   
Bright: X_X   
Mirai: (looking around) Don't we have some plot around here somewhere? 

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- 

SD Gundam Fanfic Omake: Chapter Two – Confusing Plots and Nifty 'Bots!

(All the characters are sitting around in a non-descript cave in the middle of the night. The three kids zip around like miniature engines during the entire scene.) 

Kats, Lets, and Kikka: WWWWHHHHHEEEEEEE!!! WE'RE JUST TOO ADORABLE FOR WORDS!! 

Bright: Well, there's obviously only one way to fix this problem we're having.   
Amuro: Wait! I missed the plot! What's going on?   
Sayla: Oh don't worry, you're not supposed to understand it yet. The author likes to confuse her readers and her characters that way.   
Kai: In order to deceive your enemy, you must first deceive your friends!   
Amuro: How does deceiving us help!?!   
Kats, Lets, and Kikka: WWWWEEEEEEEEEEE!   
Bright: (to the "adults") Excuse me a moment. (to the kids) SSSHHHHHUUUUUTTT UUUUPPPPP!!!! 

(The three kids are forced back into a random crevice in the cave wall by the sound waves. Bright turns back to the "adults.") 

Bright: Anyway, obviously, the only way to fix this problem is to steal the nifty new robots the author made up as a plot device!   
All: SCORE! 

********* 

(Berz sits at her computer desk feverishly writing when she really should be doing Calculus III homework. Her chibi-muse sits on her shoulder, cracking a whip in her ear.) 

Muse-chan: C'mon! You'd better write while I'm still coming around! You never know when I'll abandon you!   
Berz: Hey, aren't you supposed to be inspiring me on that X-Men Evolution fanfic that's been sitting around for four months now? And what about my Robotech magnum opus?   
Muse-chan: Forget it! I want you to work on THIS! Now work, mindless minion! (cracks whip in Berz's ear)   
Berz: (whining) But I already give you all that time in between my classes and all! C'mon! I have to do school work at some point!   
Muse-chan: That can wait! After all, what's Calculus compared to a fanfic epic? The first, I might add, that's come with a message free of charge from li'l ol' me!   
Berz: (weighing options) Hmm… Integrals or allegory… SOLD! 

(Berz's grades instantly plummet.) 

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- 

SD Gundam Fanfic Omake Chapter three – Lack of Intelligence

(Bright, Mirai, and Clarisse all walk into a city, making squeaks with every step. They walk into a bar.) 

Bright: (to Clarisse) Hey! You're too young to come in here!   
Clarisse: And just when did you come here first, mister clean? 

(SD Jean Carnot comes up to them and hits on Clarisse.) 

Jean: (in annoying, exaggerated French accent) Hey there, cutie pie! Wanna have a drink and go off to the room upstairs with me? 

(Bright instantly squashes him with a large mallet.) 

Clarisse: ^^; Hey, aren't only girls supposed to have those?   
Bright: It's all his fault, dammit! Blame Carnot!   
Clarisse: I don't even wanna KNOW!   
Mirai: (scraping pancake-Carnot off the ground) Hey, he was a major plot point! Now what?   
Bright: Oh, I'll just grab this conveniently placed plot device off him and we can go.   
Mirai: But what about the heroic chase? The profound wisdom? The sudden declaration of love in the face of hopeless odds?   
Bright: No time. We still have to figure out what the heck the main plotline's about!   
Mirai: Point. 

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- 

SD Gundam Fanfic Omake chapter four – Climax? We don't need no stinkin' climax!

(SD Bright pokes SD McAllis with a stick.) 

McAllis: Heeee-eeeyyy… 

(Puzzled, Bright pokes him again. McAllis promptly falls over.) 

McAllis: Ha! No closure for you!   
Bright: You mean I have to live with not actually understanding all this until it's far too late to make it do anything for me?   
McAllis: Well, not quite… but a lotta crap does happen because you're simply a slow twit who doesn't get it until he's, you know, eighty or so. Then you'll have a big, sappy revelation.   
Bright: Yay! Big sappy revelation! Wait! What am I saying? 

(Camera pans over to show Berz typing away at the keyboard. The Chibi-muse has been tied and gagged and shoved in a corner.) 

Berz: (to Bright) Just what I want you to say. ^_^   
Bright: NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! 

Insert dedication of the Grade-A Wisconsin cheese type here! 

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- 

(Berz sits at her desk at one in the morning, doing a final check over of the last chapter. The chibi-muse pops in and sits on her shoulder again.) 

Muse-chan: Man, am I pooped!   
Berz: YOU'RE pooped!?! What about me!?! I don't suppose you're going to give me anything to work with on my Robotech story for all that great work I did on this, are you?   
Muse-chan: HELL no!   
Berz: You're cruel.   
Muse-chan: I know. Now, see, there's this Enterprise idea I want you to work on once the new semester starts.   
Berz: You're not cruel. There isn't a word for you.   
Muse-chan: ^_^ Music to my ears! 

**_OWARI_! Really this time.**   
  



End file.
